Saturday, April 28, 2007

Here We Go Brownies!


NFL Draft 2007! Your refreshing breath of football in the midst of the NBA & NHL playoffs and (sigh) baseball season.

Now, the Browns are pretty well known for horrendous draft picks since returning to the league. With such AWESOME first-round picks as Tim "home sitting on my" Couch, Willie "fell on a knife" Green, Courtney "ouch" Brown, Gerard "big money" Warren... and the Dynamic Injury duo of Kellen "Motorcycle Soldier" Winslow and Braylon Edwards. Jeff Faine at Center is in there somewhere too... while not as uber-bust as the other early picks, he's still got to be considered a loss.

So this year the Browns craftily managed to land themselves drafting third overall. Lots and lots of hot air was spent the past few months talking about who they'd pick... Adrian Peterson? Brady Quinn? Joe Thomas? When the time came, they played it safe and went for the area that arguably needs the MOST help for the team, picking up Joe Thomas from Wisconsin for the key Left Tackle spot. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed, but it definitely WAS the safe pick, and you can't argue that the Browns O-Line has been BAD. Still, I was bummed because this was a good pick for the future, but doesn't build any real excitement for NOW.

Then... the magic happens. Miami heads to Buckeye City and bites on Teddy Ginn WAY ahead of projections, instead of taking care of their gaping QB problem. And that means Brady slides further... and further... (they even took him off to a private room so he didn't have to deal with the "doesn't that suck" close-ups after every team that DIDN'T pick him).

And at #22 the Browns trade-up, back into the first round and land him after all. Two top-5 rated picks for the Browns in one year. NICE. And, Brady, like a champ, comes out & puts on the hat and holds up the jersey, being the last guy actually in attendance who hadn't done so at that point.

Of course, he was holding up the wrong jersey - so I had to do a little editing work for you. Not at all noticeable, I'm sure. ;)

Honestly though, I'm really happy about this - this is probably my favorite top 2 picks for the Browns since they returned to the league. They filled a much needed hole and STILL managed to get someone that we can hopefully ask to carry the franchise forward into the future. As long as he doesn't get sacked into oblivion first.

So I say, in the enternal mantra of the Cleveland sports fan, "This is the year!" ;)