The Move - with Happily Ever After

[Flugel]

You never know what idea can lead to a happily ever after in Cleveland. The first version of "The Move" almost felt as wonderful as a bout with food poisoning. The difference is food poisoning actually ends at some point.

Anyway, Matty Ice needed a caffeinated beverage for his passing game and got it. As it came time for Cleveland's 6th pick and the idea of Julio Jones to come to fruition, the Browns provided some expensive tea for Matty Ice. Before many could utter that 3rd word following "what the...", it was announced Cleveland received 5 draft picks in exchange for "The Move." Cleveland received Atlanta's first, 2nd and 4th round picks this year and their 1st and 4th round next year. For a 53 man roster with more holes than an 18 hole golf course - this was a prescription for success handed down by Heaven above.

I'm not sure I made good sense of losing one of those picks to move up 6 spots for Phil Taylor; but I'm not the one that put in all the thorough research. Keep in mind what everyone felt/thought when TJ Ward was announced in early round 2 last year. Then remind ourselves how the research behind it led to TJ being our leading tackler. Not only that but Dareus, Fairley, Liuget were already off the board while Paea has a knee injury interfering with where his talent says he should go (see Da'Quan Bowers story). As a guy that could only peg 2 of the first 10 picks right, who am I to question such a pick?

As others have said, the draft didn't END at pick #6 it just began. The ship already sunk so I'm gonne be redundant here with we gotta go Noah's Ark-level reconstruction and grab 2 of every promising throughbred and species that leads to winning. The first move led to David Modell getting crabs in Baltimore and a couple innocent Cleveland Browns named Rob Burnett and Matt Stover getting rings so all wasn't lost. However, this version of "The Move" is win-win for both parties. Alot of us LOVED what Julio did for himself because we were cozying up to reality he was special enough for #6 overal consideration. Look no further than what we were given for that 1 player. The thing to remember with our history of round 1 selections is that ONE guy can always get injured and reinjured; especially someone with 2 screws holding his foot together today.

I still wonder what the path of this franchise would have been if we were the team that traded with Ditka for Ricky Williams. At the time, you couldn't get me to budge on doing that in lieu of Tim Couch. That's what fans do with their passion right or wrong. The reason I am posting this is because I know alot of us were getting excited about the missing playmakers at this time. Well, we certainly increase our chances of landing more playmakers with more draft picks. On top of that we just filled one hole with 340 pounds; and rumor has it Waco, TX is back above sea level. Land ho!

[Brown Warrior]

This is a better spot to discuss this. Thanks, Tom.

I've said it elsewhere, but the flow is better here: For 2011's first three picks, the premium area, we went in with 6, 37, and 70. At least for now, we'll end up picking 21, 37, and 59. So the changes are 6 and 70 for 21 and 59.

Is that a super-duper trade? I'll abstain from any final judgement, but it's sort of... meh. Whatever.

As for next year, we're likely to add a pick in the 26-32 range, which helps a little. If you call the above a wash, that's what we gained.

My initial response is a . We've done something similar to this, just two years ago, turning a top 10 pick into an interior player few were talking about. The results of last time? Two 5-win seasons.

It's certainly different.

[Brown Warrior]

As far as, "What now?" I think we can get a good DE at 37 (Sheard or Reed, maybe?). You'd think WR at 59, maybe a slot type like Cobb or Jernigan.

[Solon16]

giving away our third rounder was fucking stupid!

[Bronx Cheer]

That's what has got me so down about the trades. The picks next year are going to be a low first and low fourth - and they are a year off!

The real kicker, though, is giving up a third to move up six spots for a guy that:

1) likely would still be there anyway, and
2) appears redundant of our best player on D,

Oh well. At least we're not the Panthers.

[Bronx Cheer]

Solon-

Weren't you the ones defending the trades last night? (Or was it just the Taylor pick itself).

[Greythan]

Again, for the naysayers, what would you have done?

[Greythan]

And Bronx, if Heckert felt that Taylor would have "likely been there" when we picked at 27 he wouldn't have made the trade. You have to trust that Heckert had good intelligence that led to that conclusion. So, get that issue out of your head.

The only question then is what did H&H see in Taylor compared to the alternatives likely available at 27 that prompted them to make the move. Again, here you have to trust H&H in their evaluation of Taylor.

We clearly needed another DT. We clearly have lots of needs. (Hence, the strong rationale for trading down for more picks.)

[hiwaygal]

Originally Posted by Flugel

On top of that we just filled one hole with 340 pounds; and rumor has it Waco, TX is back above sea level. Land ho!

[Greythan]

A further endorsement of the theory on H&H's concern about our overall roster:

"It was probably more so the multiple picks," Heckert said, when asked if the player he hoped to select at No. 6 was off the board. "It was the amount of picks that we got."

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by Brown Warrior

This is a better spot to discuss this. Thanks, Tom.

I've said it elsewhere, but the flow is better here: For 2011's first three picks, the premium area, we went in with 6, 37, and 70. At least for now, we'll end up picking 21, 37, and 59. So the changes are 6 and 70 for 21 and 59.

Is that a super-duper trade? I'll abstain from any final judgement, but it's sort of... meh. Whatever.

As for next year, we're likely to add a pick in the 26-32 range, which helps a little. If you call the above a wash, that's what we gained.

My initial response is a . We've done something similar to this, just two years ago, turning a top 10 pick into an interior player few were talking about. The results of last time? Two 5-win seasons.

It's certainly different.

Thanks Shep! IMO, it's important to remember in 2009 this franchise was only scheduled for 4 draft picks. It's a big part of WHY Savage got fired. He came here promising you build through the draft and he traded away draft volumes for a bunch of dline vets out of scheme as well as a QB he overrated to trade up for. Mark Sanchez going to a franchise that won 9 games the year before wasn't the equivalent of coming to one with no good draft volumes since 1999. He might have gotten killed like Couch and Stafford in this kind of environment. Keep in mind, we had to start 3 different QBs in 2010 when we rarely ever had the same 2 guys starting on the right side. They say timing is everything in this league and I'm finding it tough to dispute that.

Guys like Aaron Rodgers (24th), Ray Lewis (26th), Clay Matthews (26th), Dan Marino (27th) and others show us great values at the back end of round 1. I'll bet I can find gems every year back there if I took the time to research it.

Remember when Mike Ditka got his guy Ricky Williams? Just 2 drafts later in 2001 the Saints were compelled to take Duece McCallister at #23 overall. Ricky went on prozac over the pressure to live up to the expectations from that mega trade.

Try to think of what was unfolding on this franchise last year. At 1 point were getting our record respectable as we defeated NE and NO while taking NY to OT. However, a team that has the least amount of draftees playing for it - had a ridiculous volume of injuries to starters and fillins over a 3 week stretch during and slightly after that stretch of games that returned us back to being seen as that team that never drafted well. Aside from that, no team can withstand 3 different QBs in walking boots while both guys slated to be the QB of the defense ended up on IR.

Savage KILLED this team more than he wanted to. The guys before him here sucked so his inexperience blindsided him. He was a likable guy that really wanted to prove himself but bad decisions and unfortunate injuries just compounded problems. He underestimated the challenges of free agency, trading draft picks and how to build through the draft. It's a little different than watching Ozzie do it when he's just fetching coffee and taking notes. When he was hired here he said he was here to build this team through the draft. However, he traded way day one in 2008 and we only have 1 keeper from day 2. In 2009, he left us 4 draft picks so getting 1 nice skill position wasn't gonna make us compete any better especially if it's a wide eyed rookie QB. Keep in mind everyone else in the division seemed to have at least 10 draft picks scheduled all the while this was happening.

Today, i looks to me like we have better font office experience guiding us. I wrote this post for our passionate fans (like yourself) that might be a little disappointed about not gettign that top playmaker in round 1. I wasn't exactly jumping for joy about getting Waco Texas back above sea level at pick #21. However, I have confidence we're gonna end up liking this draft once it has been completed.

[Greythan]

Heckert really liked Taylor (or, for the cynics, he's just justifying the selection):

HECKERT ON TAYLOR: Heckert couldn't praise Taylor enough. "If your guards or center are a little undersized, he's going to run right over the top of you,'' said Heckert. "He didn't rotate (in and out of the lineup) at all at Baylor. As a 340-pound defensive lineman, he never came out at all. This kid's effort is not a problem at all.''

He said the Browns had Taylor ranked "higher than obviously where we took him.''