Monday, January 28, 2019

Paul DePodesta: Haslam's Smartest Hire...well Until John Dorsey I mean

Could the Browns trade for Von Miller?  Yes.  But they won't.

As dreamy as it would be to have this sack-monster opposite Myles Garrett, the cost in draft capital AND salary would be unendurable.

Von Miller turns 30 in March.  He's due to make 17 mil in base salary in 2019, then 17.5 mil in '20 and '21, at which time he'll be 32.

Matt Florjancic himself guesses that the trade would cost Dorsey two first round draft picks, as well.

The Bears just gave up two of their own first round picks for Khalil Mack, and it seems to have had something to do with da Bearss' awesome defenss, so I can't call people who think this would be a good move dumbasses.

But me?  No.  Can't do it.  John Dorsey is running these drafts, and the 2019 draft is very deep in passrushers (especially edge-rushers).

Ask yourself: "What would BILL do?"  Obviously, Lord Insideous would never even contemplate trading two first round picks for a 17 mil/year 30 year old, no matter HOW good he is.

Anyway, this won't happen.

I don't understand where the perception that the Browns need help at cornerback is coming from.

Terrence Mitchell surprised a lot of us in training camp as he overtook EJ Gaines to become an excellent starting cornerback opposite Denzel Ward.

Gaines was lost for the season (not killed). Carey has been a servicable corner, and Boddy-Calhoun can still play corner too.

Both top dawgs Mitchell and Ward missed time off injuries as well, and I guess a bunch of pundits are just looking at generalized stats and broad-brushing the entire corps.

Next season, everybody will return healthy.  If John Dorsey extends the (poorly-leveraged) contracts of a couple free agents, the Browns will again have a deep and talented group of cornerbacks.

Wilks is just the right guy to teach Denzel Ward not to "lead with his face".

I love the kid's stubborn toughness and guts, but he really needs to quit tackling like a 250 lb linebacker.  Wilks will fix that.

"Shut-down" or man corners don't grow on trees.  Most NFL teams can't field two of these guys that they can trust.  With Mitchell and Ward, the Browns are one of the lucky teams that can.  That's reality.

But this is Cleveland, so we need three or four shut-down cornerbacks...

Don't get me wrong: John Dorsey will probably sign at least one free agent veteran cornerback, and draft at least one as well.  Maybe even 17th overall.

I won't knock any of it.  In today's mad-bomber NFL, you need lots and lots of cornerbacks, and if an uber-corner is there at 17, good deal.

...except not if a stud defensive tackle, linebacker, or edge-rusher is also there...because, you know...Dorsey needs all those positions before he needs more cornerbacks...D U H.

No offense intended.

Paul DePodesta will break free agency and this draft class down "analytically", and recommend a "strategy" to John Dorsey.  Dorsey will thank him for it.

This year's draft-crop is deep in edge/passrushers, but not so much in stud defensive tackles (not sure about linebackers yet).

The veteran free agents (with a real chance of actually making it to the open market) have better depth at defensive tackle, and some pretty good linebackers.

Paul DePodesta's recommendations will seek to exploit and max out these markets.

I understand that Karl Marx has taken over the Department of Education in recent decades, so I have to spell stuff out to you youngsters which would insult my fellow geezers' intelligence:

The veteran free agents are competing with others who play their positions for available jobs.  If there are only a couple other guys, they can gouge and get overpaid by desperate teams, and/or "shop around" for nice weather, top contenders, etc.

If there are a bunch of competitors (as there was in 2018 when Dorsey gorged himself on cheap cornerbacks), you take what you can get.

This is called the "free market".  Also, "supply and demand".  (You can look this up.  But hurry, before they start banning and deleting the books).

The best agents get that the draft influences "March madness" (when free agents start running around looking for jobs). So does DePodesta.

The veteran edge-rushers will know that they can't gouge for as much this year, because Dorsey and his ilk know they can draft a guy instead of overpaying them.

As Chief Strategy Officer, Paul DePodesta (to be sure leaning on Swish, PFF, and no doubt his own analytics):

1: Ranks "depth-of-position" in free agency, the draft, and the two combined.

2: Calculates median salaries/values for the veterans.

3: Combines this with the Browns' REAL position needs to rank priorities (here it gets too complicated for me, because I'm not DePodesta.  I could do this stuff once, but not any more).

4: Paul gives John the whole thing, down to some specific recommendations about specific players.

Now, the recent ESPN hit-piece on Jimmy Haslam mostly ignored Paul DePodesta.

It's easy to figure out why: Hiring this guy was the smartest thing Jimmy Haslam did (prior to hiring Dorsey).

This "analytics vs football guys" stuff is mostly hype.  John Dorsey (and Lord Insideous, for that matter) is analytical as hell.

Paul DePodesta is THE ultimate analyst.  If you read this Blog, you know that he was just fooling around in baseball--he's THE top business analytics consultant for the Fortune 500.

He's just having fun helping build a Superbowl winner here.  Jimmy Haslam hired him.  DEAL with it.

Thanks to the dumbest person ever to have existed (Rodney Haslamfield), one of the biggest brains on Wall Street is doing John Dorsey's heavy lifting.

Listen to me here: John Dorsey built the Chiefs.  He's awesome.  But Paul DePodesta will (nay---might already have) chang(ed) him into the best GM in the NFL.

John Dorsey never had a DePodesta before.  Trust me: He's already had most of his tedious grunt-work done for him for this offseason; he has a "head start".

DePodesta filtered out a lot of for him, spelled out the smartest strategy, and now he and his scouts can focus on (fewer) films to fine-tune their picks.

Most likely, when John Dorsey came to the Browns last season, he was greeted by a Paul DePodesta "data-dump".

Possibly, it sold him on Baker Mayfield, and/or Ward over Chubb.  (I'm just wondering--I have no idea.)

Yeah Jimmy Haslam the "meddler".  The idiot.  Bullcrap. Ok he shouldn't have fired Chud, but most of his other moves were justified.

He started getting a handle on it with DePodesta (and that was a stroke of genius).  

Yeah he screwed up, but now here is Dorsey, Mayfield, an incredible coaching staff, and one of the most talented teams in the NFL but nooo!  The Haslams godda go!!! Fire dem!

Sorry I was gone for awhile but I'm back now:

That was then.  This is now.

Deal with it.




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