2014 Browns Official Draft Thread

Bitonio looked really, really good in the o-line drills at the combine. Flipped his hips really well and can hit a moving target. Great scheme fit and he can play all 5 positions. He was on Sirius last week and told Tim and Jim he played center in high school. You'll like him.

 

Who's this RB?

 

Wont matter Brett....they will face a 8-9 man box w Little and Burleson out wide since they refuse to draft a WR...smh

 

I've been ok with it until that last pick.

 

Not Bitonio, love that kid...I was talking about Kirksey, the LB

Also love Terrance West pick..

 

Terrance West, RB - Towson - I actually like this pick a lot. Accounted for half of Towsons offense last year, yds and Td's. The only drawback is that he has some mileage on his tires. Set the NCAA FCS single-season rushing mark and led all of college football in 2013 with 413 carries for 2,519 yards (6.1) and 41 touchdowns and 26 catches for 258 yards and a TD in 16 games. I really think this kid fits the mold of a Shanahan RB. Note: His 84 career rushing touchdowns tied the FCS record, set by Adrian Peterson (Georgia Southern 1998-2001) in only three seasons.

 

Yeah Crex, I did quite a bit if study on West and at this point I like him...I actually drafted him in the mock we did with the first pick in round 4.

He is a bit of an enigma on film. He is compact and plays like a bowling ball, but really needs a hole to explode through. Because of his size he breaks tackles, without gaining many extra yards...But then, despite his playing style, every now and again, he will bust one to the outside and has deceptive quickness on the edge. That was his bread and butter, but I'm not convinced he will be able to do it at the next level.

His build is almost perfect to go along with his athleticism, I really look forward to seeing his growth with professional coaching. To me, he showed a lack of elite coaching on film and I think his ceiling is pretty high...



Now that I have some time, I am going to go look at this LB we drafted...

 

LOL Irish, I think I PM'd you about him as well

Ya the Kirskey pick has me intrigued as well, especially with Borland still on the board. At this point I'm thinking it has to do with Borland not being very good in pass coverage. Let us know what you find. I haven't found much that gives me a warm fuzzy, yet.

As much grief as the pundits are giving Farmer for NOT drafting a WR with the news about Gordon, I actually applaud them for sticking to their board and strategy for this draft. They've actually done a decent job of filling holes and adding depth. we'll see today if they take a WR or not.

Abberdis from Wisconsin or Janis from Saginaw intrigue me. We'll see. Although It's starting to look like the Browns may be going back to some old fashioned smash mouth football.

 

I'd like Abberdis. We need to take one with this 4th round pick.

 

OK, went in and watched 4 games of Kirksey...

If there is a polar opposite of Craig Robertson, his name is Christian Kirksey.

He looks like a safety who went to a buffet and got too large to play safety, yet kept his speed and quickness. This kid knows how to cover, better than T.J. Ward. He is lightning fast and can cover slot, TE and RB out of the backfield with relative ease. He seems to understand the zones very well and can also play man on multiple receiver sets if needed. I love his motor, he is near the ball on every single play, whether on his side of the field or not, he never stops until he is at the pile any where on the field...I just can't say enough about his coverage skills. Good open field tackler, not great, but will slow down a receiver enough for the second wave anyway.



Now the bad..He can be blocked with a one armed man at the line...Give him space and his speed kills, but put him any where in traffic and he is toast...DE, TE, RBs doesn't matter, I think I saw him fight through blocks to make a play twice in the 40 minutes of film I watched.

I see him being a nickle/ILB hybrid. He will be absolutely money on certain passing downs, but could be a liability on running downs. Given an opportunity to sneak blitz uncovered, he has the speed to close in a hurry, just hope he isn't picked up on that blitz or it will be fruitless...

Overall, I think I would have taken Borland's diversity as a 3 down backer, but if this kid can be taught to fight through the block, his upside is much much better than Borland. Man that speed and coverage skill is EXTREMELY impressive.

I think you can make him a spy LB in the 3-4 and let Dansby do what every you need him to do all over the field and you will be ok.

 

Love the Pierre pick. Great size. Skrine's days are over.

 

Desir was a STEAL in the 4th!!! He is a baller. Dominated Division II, this will be a huge leap for him though. Wish him the best.

CB is now a pretty deep position for us...Maybe try to trade Skrine for a WR? I know most are down on him, but truthfully he improved quite a bit last year and he has a lot of starting experience that will appeal to teams.


Well, we did sign UDFA:

Ray Agnew, FB, Southern Illinois
Alex Bazzle, LB, Marshall
Greg Blair, LB, Cincinnati
Carlo Calabrese, LB, Notre Dame
Isaiah Crowell, RB, Alabama State
Anthony Dima, OL, UMass
Gerald Ford, WR, Valdosta State
Jason Hendricks, S, Pittsburgh
Chandler Jones, WR, San Jose State
Corey Robinson, QB, Troy
Connor Shaw, QB, South Carolina
Willie Snead, WR, Ball State
Jacques Washington, S, Iowa State

 

Willie Snead is a baller. Hope he makes the team.

 

All three have their own attributes that could help this team...Jones, being a slot receiver probably is the longest shot to make the roster, but because of the circumstances the other two need to come to camp and impress early.

Gerald Ford has the characteristics of a Josh Gordon, but he simply hasn't done it against top competition. It's going to be quite a jump for him to the next level.

 

So here it is...

1(9) Justin Gilbert
1(22) Johnny Manziel
2(35) Joel Bitonio
3(7) Christian Kirksey
3(30) Terrance West
4(27) Pierre Desir

I love the way the entire first round was handled. Moving down 5 spots and picking up a #1 next year was beautiful. We needed another high end CB and we landed the best one on the board, and a future #1 from Buffalo. Great move, but that wasn't tyhe most impressive thing. Being patient and "in tune" (for a change) with what the other 31 teams were up to, Farmer was able to properly assess the true value of Johnny Manziel. Most GM's in our situation would have played it safe and taken the QB first, then settled for a lesser CB at #26, and there would have been no thought of adding any future #1's to the arsenal.. Ray Farmer didn't play it safe...He played it smart. And he got his QB prospect at his proper value rather than reaching.

I wasn't really that surprised when they took Bitonio in the second. In fact, I love the pick. I was hoping we took him after the Marqise Lee knee issue started swirling. He was one of the fastest riser on the draft boards. Plays with a mean streak and versatile enough to play anywhere on the line.

Christian Kirksey was the only mystery pick. I had to go look at him too. I think we all thought it would be Borland. This tells me one thing. They don't want Robertson on the field in obvious passing downs. Clearly this is a situational coverage specialist, that will come in and hopefully help us get off the field on third downs. I like the pick, and understand the need....

I knew Terrance West was a big back and that was about it, other than hearing Mel Kiper mention him about a million times over the last few months. Didn't really pay much attention to him though until Irish took him in the last mock. I went back and took a much closer look, and that dude really is a beast. When picking a guy from a small school like that, he better have looked like a man among boys, and he absolutely did. He's actually similiar to Carlos Hyde. Very powerful, but has sneaky speed. Looks the part of the workhorse NFL running back...

Finished it off with a steal in round 4 by continuing to load up that secondary. Pierre Desir is a great CB prospect. Cleveland really seems to be trying to build this team in a similiar fashion to the Seattle Seahawks. Not a bad plan at all....I love that Ray Farmer clearly identified his targets and went and got them. Use those late rounders to position yourself for better players in the higher rounds. It's a philosophy I've always been a strong supporter of....

All in all, Ray Farmer gets an A in my book...

I know there will be bitching and moaning about his failure to address the WR position, but he just added probably 4 starters to this team, and all will be significant contributers. No 6th and 7th round long shots in this group....And I think with all the WR's that were drafted this year, there are going to be some talented WR's available when NFL teams start cut downs. Plus we have plenty of ammo to make a trade if things start looking desparate.

Lots of teams make the playoffs year in and year out without a WR the caliber of Josh Gordon...It sucks losing him, and Im pissed about it, but I'm glad we didn't draft out of desparation and make silly reaches..

 

Crazy Crex? post draft thoughts? *WRITE*

So now that the draft is over and we?re all hungover from Gordon hanging out with Bess too much. *WALL* *HIGH* *ROSE*

Had my buddy (Yinzer fan who still remembers the rivalry) call me and ask me what I thought of the Browns Draft. I asked him if he remembered Minny/Dixon duo, when he said yes I said Haden and Gilbert. After a moment of silence he says ?oh shit?. Went on to say how brilliant it was for farmer to get Manziel at 22 rather than at 4.

QB: the biggest need for the team and they got their man, so yes SAS, Irish, I?ll get on the JF wagon now. Just don?t expect me to IV drip the kool-aid, yet. Personally though not a huge fan of Manziel I still think that there are things to like. I hope he comes into Cleveland with chip on his shoulder and plays like it for the next 15+years. Addressed the biggest need.

CB; Listed as the second biggest need. They went out and in what I thought was a brilliant move picking up a future first round pick and getting the best CB in the class. Also getting Desir in the 4th was a steal IMHO. Addressed the other biggest need IMHO. *BRAVO*

ILB: While addressed the player they selected is not going to be a plug-n-play guy. Wonder what scouts saw in Skov that we all missed as he went undrafted. *SCRATCH*

S: Didn?t draft a safety until Undrafted RFA signings. There must be a plan on D or they are totally comfortable with the guys already on the roster.

RB: This is my favorite pick. *YAHOO* I admit it. *YAHOO* I like Farmers description of this guy. *YAHOO*

OL: Another pick I like. Binito supposedly can do it all. Will add good depth and will likely work into a starting role sooner rather than later. *YES*

WR: Gordon = phuqing moron. We all new that he was a Dixie cup away from bagging groceries. Evidently a position that we all felt needed more attention prior to the Gordon news. Guess this was a position that they felt wasn?t as big of a need as the rest of us. I?ll give them props for sticking to their board and strategy. *THUMBSUP*

TE: FB: DE/DT: Not surprised they didn?t draft anyone at these positions. Wonder how much depth they?re gonna give up to replace Gordon? *CRAZY* *DONT_KNOW* *WALL* *HIGH*

I admit when I saw who we traded our 7th round pick to to get a future 6th My arse got a bit chapped. Especially when the pick was a WR :| %) :|

Agreed all-in-all I like what Farmer did and think we may have our own Ozzie Newsome running the show.

We have three extra picks next year a first, fourth and sixth rounder.

IMHO a very solid draft that should get high marks. Time for Pettine and his staff to get these guys whipped into shape.

 

I agree w some but disagree w the last couple of statements.....they didnt come away w 4 starters unless they hand over the reigns to Manziel(I dont see it happening)....Gilbert shuld start but thats bout it unless Bitonio wins a job.....in the 2nd round they had guys like Lee, Adams, Matthews on the board and all figured as 2nd round talent....u cant win w Little and Burleson as ur starting WRs. It wuldnt have been a reach to select one of the following guys mentioned. Defenses will stack the box and make this team 1 dimensional since there is little threat on the perimeter

 

AMEN! I like the 1st 2 rds. also. But after that these guys are going to have to show me something. Not when I could of had Borland, Yankey, Carey and such. I know what those guys can do. I had them all in the 3/4th rds. With no one to throw to besides Cameron Hoyer/Johnny will have his work cut out for him.

 

There are obviously no guarantees with Manziel, but between him and Hoyer, I feel better about our QB situation than I have in a long time. That's the key. I hate the fact that we most likely lose our superstar WR for the year. It's a sting that's not going to go away, but if this team can finally get some good consistent play from the QB position, we have a talented enough roster to overcome the loss...We CAN'T overcome chitty QB play again....We just can't....Nobody can. We all knew that Gordon was close to facing this sort of penalty, and given his track record, it really shouldn't surprise anybody that he failed another wiz quiz....

I believe the Browns can overcome it, and at the bare minimum, be fun and interesting and most importantly "relevant" this season. If there was ever a team long over due for a change in fortune, it's the Cleveland Browns and their long suffering but loyal fans.....There is definitely going to be more national attention on the Browns than they have had in a long time and that's a good thing IMO....It's going to be fun. Remember fun Browns fans?? We had a sample last year for about 3 weeks.....before that, you gotta go back to about 1989...To say we are "due" for some love from the football gods, is the biggest understatement ever. In the end, it's all about the QB in this league. That is the reason for my optimism. I don't expect it to happen right away, but I just feel we finally landed a truly special QB. We shall see...

 

and besides all that,it's May! Which means by law, as a Browns fan, I have the right to be bizarrely optimistic....thank you very much.