That's a good point. I almost went with Elflein there, but I thought my Buckeye homerism might show through. lol! Pocic can handle anywhere on the interior, and though I feel we would need him most at Center, worst case scenario is we flip him to Guard...Honestly, I'd like to see the Browns address O-line aggressively in free agency. Then perhaps we could use pick #65 to fill a hole elsewhere....I've studied quite a few CB's, and I don't think it would hurt us to double down on that position. One I really like that might be available in that area is Chidobe Awuzie from Colorado. Slightly undersized but he sure as hell doesn't play like it. Tough sure tackler that can flat out cover....Or another direction I thought about was Haasan Reddick LB Temple; another tweener. Undersized, super quick, new generation, playmaking LB that can rush, cover and tackle. I think he would make a nice fit in Gregg Williams' defense....
Time for Browns to rule out trading No. 1 pick It?s still way too early to discuss the Browns? options with regard to the top pick in April?s college football draft. That?s why it is difficult to take Browns coach Hue Jackson seriously when he told reporters Wednesday at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., that the possibility of trading that selection is not off the board. ?Everything for right now is going to be negotiable and talked about,? Jackson said. ?Until we sit down and talk about where we are and what we?re trying to do, then we?ll know. We haven?t had those discussions. Right now, we?re just in the beginning phases of all of it. We?ve got a long way to go before we get to that decision.? Reading between the lines, he did not rule out the possibility of trading out of the top spot in order to stockpile more picks for this year and beyond. Ordinarily, that wouldn?t be a problem. But the brief history of drafting by the current team in place in the war room indicates adding picks is not necessarily the way to go. The braintrust twice traded down from the No. 2 overall pick they owned last season and wound up with wide receiver Corey Coleman, whose contribution to the offense ranked somewhere between absent (due to injury) and underwhelming (being charitable here). And with the next 13 picks, they defied the odds and failed to select anyone who can honestly be considered a difference maker. Somewhere along the line, one would think, they would have gotten lucky and stumbled into such a player. Based on that performance, it is difficult to have faith in them. The very thought they have not absolutely ruled out swapping out of the top spot this year is concerning. Based once again on last year?s disappointing draft choices, it seems as though the talent evaluation bar has been lowered at 76 Lou Groza Blvd. That is why it is imperative that Sashi Brown & Co. sticks with picks one and 12 in the first round and five of the first 65. That is where the best talent resides. It makes no sense to trade down for the Browns, who displayed personnel ignorance in doing so last year. If anything, they should think seriously about trading up as much as possible to corral that talent. This team?s roster needs a substantial upgrade in talent in order to make a genuine effort to improve. Last season?s 1-15 record was a direct reflection of the front office?s inability to piece together a roster capable of playing anything that resembled competitive football. Wisdom in the war room is essential if that is to occur. Based on their initial run last year, though, the likelihood of that happening is, at best, negligible. And Jackson?s pre-draft thinking, albeit way too early, could be construed as a portent of things to come. The idea of adding picks through trades is intoxicating, for sure. But if you do not select with intelligence, which the current regime has done, then all those numbers mean nothing in the end. It is nothing more than an exercise in futility, one that has become all too commonplace regardless of whoever is the architect. Posted by Rich Passan
Malik Hooker Out 4-6 Months After Two Surgeries Updated Feb. 1, 2017 By Charlie Campbell. Follow Charlie on Twitter @draftcampbell. Every year in the NFL Draft, there are some top prospects who are held back by injury during the pre-draft process. This year, one of the top talents in the 2017 NFL Draft will be in that category, as WalterFootball.com has learned from NFL sources that Ohio State safety Malik Hooker will be out 4-6 months after having hernia and labrum surgery.? Given the timetable of his recovery, Hooker won't be able to participate in the field workouts at the NFL Scouting Combine and may not be able to conduct other workouts later in the spring for teams prior to the draft. Thus, sources say that Hooker's combine medical recheck weeks before the draft will be very important for teams to gauge if there could be any projected impact on his availability for the start of training camp. ? Hooker was one of the breakout players in college football in 2016, as the redshirt sophomore totaled 74 tackles with 5.5 for a loss, half a sack, four passes broken up and seven interceptions. He returned three of those picks for touchdowns in his first season as a starter. The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder impressed evaluators with his natural skills as a single high safety and his ability to be a game changer in pass coverage. Hooker is atop our NFL Draft Safety Prospect Rankings. ? ? At this time, the injuries don't appear to be threatening to his rookie season, so his draft stock may not see much of an impact from these surgeries. Multiple teams have told WalterFootball.com that Hooker has received high first-round grades, so even with these injuries, he may not have a long wait to find out his NFL home on Thursday night of the draft. ? Read more at http://walterfootball.com/nfldraftrumormill#3TSZ4UROblhhyoWa.99
Dammit!!!!!!! It's always something, isn't it, that throws a wrench into Browns possible draft plans? Should the Browns trade down a few spots, he would have been a nice option and much needed on the roster, if he was still available. Maybe he could still be there at #12 and worth the risk?
Joe Mixon and Ishmael Zamora not invited to the NFL combine....Props to Roger. Ya got that one right..... *BRAVO* I like the message that this puts out....Beating women is not acceptable behavior....Beating dogs is not acceptable behavior....Phuque these morons. No doubt, if they got the skills, they will likely find a landing spot, but this lets teams know right up front, buyer beware...The warning is out..If you take one of these clowns and he repeat offends, the punishment will be swift and harsh. They are already coming into the league WITHOUT the commish's stamp of approval...Good move by the NFL.
The end of the Super Bowl meant the end of the season for the Patriots and Seahawks, but it also meant that the rest of the league could get back to business. Teams were permitted to start making roster moves on Monday and the Browns didn?t waste any time getting the ball rolling on this year?s offseason machinations. The Browns announced that they have claimed safety Tyvis Powell off of waivers on the first day that the process has run since the end of the regular season. Powell was waived by the Seahawks leading up to Wild Card weekend so that they could sign kick returner Devin Hester to the roster. He played in eight games for Seattle during the 2016 season and made three tackles. The move is a homecoming for Powell, who grew up in Ohio and played college ball at Ohio State before signing with the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent last year. The Browns figure to have a lot more moves in store this offseason as they have a stockpile of draft picks at their disposal and room to get better across the board.
Ex-Buckeye / Clevelander is on ?the team! ?Tyvis Powell Retweeted Cleveland Browns?@Browns? ? 8m 8 minutes ago More We've claimed Cleveland native and former Buckeye Tyvis Powell Details ? http://brow.nz/2kAbWIO? Tyvis Powell?@1Tyvis? ? 6m 6 minutes ago More THERE'S A GOD!!! #BlessedByTheBest #ClevelandMadeClevelandPaid Tyvis Powell?@1Tyvis? ? 4m 4 minutes ago More Hey @joehaden23 let's get to work. We have some doubters we have to make BELIEVERS!! *YAHOO*
Say no to Belichick One of these years, sanity and the right thing to do will return to 76 Lou Groza Blvd. in Berea. This will not be that year. That feeling is based on lingering rumors that continue to link the Browns with backup New England Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in an off-season trade. Those rumors refuse to disappear despite their absurdity. Let us be perfectly clear about one thing. The Browns definitely need a quarterback. The talent at that position on the roster right now is not adequate enough to field a representative offense. That is an absolute. But Garoppolo, who hasn?t proven a thing in his three seasons as Tom Brady?s backup in New England, is not the quarterback to take the Browns to a level they haven?t experienced since the old Browns left Cleveland for Baltimore in 1995. There is no question he will be the flavor of the offseason when it comes to National Football League quarterbacks who will change teams. His name will be the most uttered the day after the Super Bowl ends as the rumor mills heat up even more. Jimmy Garoppolo to the Browns. Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers. Jimmy Garoppolo to the Chicago Bears. Get used to it. All those teams need quarterbacks. And they just happen to be 1-2-3 in the opening round of the NFL?s annual college draft. All have high picks to deal when the Patriots come calling. The Browns also own two second-rounders and can easily offer the Patriots more that the 49ers and Bears. The most envied man in that swirling world will be Patriots coach/dictator Bill Belichick, who runs his franchise autonomously. You can bet he will try to extract every ounce of blood and whatever other body matter from the team he will eventually swindle. The problem here is the Browns are his No. 1 target, mainly because they own two first-round picks (Nos. 1 and 12) in the lottery in late April. First-round draft picks are precious. They are like gold, especially if they are high. So why is that a problem? Because the Browns are the NFL team that most typifies Murphy?s Law. That?s the one that states, ?If anything can go wrong, it will.? The Browns have become the league?s poster child in that regard. How else can one explain what has transpired on the field since the NFL (sarcasm alert) magnanimously (end sarcasm alert) allowed Cleveland to reenter the league after three undeserved seasons of absence? It has been one blunder after another for 18 consecutive seasons. And now, if the aforementioned rumors are to be believed, the Browns are on the precipice of making yet another mistake of disastrous proportions that will cost them for seasons. They have the goods to deal and Belichick is frothing in the shadows. The Browns? front office needs to answer the following questions. Is Garoppolo the next Aaron Rodgers, who languished behind Brett Favre for three seasons in Green Bay before taking over and carving out a career that most certainly will end with him holding a Hall of Fame bust in Canton five years after his retirement? Or is Garoppolo the next Scott Mitchell, who parlayed one great season in Miami in the 1990s into a mediocre career in Detroit? Or is he the next Kevin Kolb, the quarterback who failed miserably in Arizona between Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer? Perhaps Garoppolo is the next Brock Osweiler, who shepherded the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl a year ago when Peyton Manning went down, ditched the Broncos for Houston in free agency and performed with such mediocrity with the Texans that he lost his starting job late this past season. Is Garoppolo the franchise quarterback the Browns have sought for so long? Is he worth the ransom Belichick is certain to ask for? This 25-year-old, wet-behind-the-ears quarterback who has thrown only 94 NFL passes? He was supposed to start the Patriots? first four games this past season while Brady served a four-game suspension, He made it through one and a half, exiting the second game in the first half with a shoulder injury. Fragile maybe? Is he worth the gamble that almost certainly will rob the Browns of the opportunity to improve a roster that needs help in so many different areas? The correct answer is no, although I?m not certain the poobahs in Berea realize it. Belichick dangling Garoppolo will be an intoxicant for Sashi Brown and the boys. They must resist for the greater good. Let the 49ers and Bears fight over him. Let them make the mistake of paying way too much for an unknown quantity. New San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan, when he coordinated the Cleveland offense a few years ago, loved Garoppolo when he entered the draft. And Chicago is home territory for the Eastern Illinois product. It?s high time the Browns? front office did something right. ?The only problem is the current crew has not shown any evidence they know what they are doing. There is still plenty of time between now and the draft for the Browns to firmly toe the line and say no to any efforts by Belichick to entice them to part with any of their first four selections. An untested quarterback cannot help the current Cleveland offense at the expense of any of those picks. It can be helped, though, by wise drafting that plugs holes in vital areas (the offensive line, for one). It all starts up front. In their seemingly never-ending search for the quarterback of the future, the Browns have trotted 26 starters through the gristmill since the resurrection in 1999. One would think simple odds would have been in their favor to end that search. Flawed thinking, such as what we have witnessed in the last year, indicates that trend is going to continue if the Garoppolo rumors are true. He will be just another name added to the list of failed Cleveland quarterbacks if that?s the road Brown and his minions choose to go down. I said it before and I?ll say it again. Jimmy Garoppolo is worth nothing more than a third-round pick and even that is being generous. Posted by Rich Passan
On a brighter note: Today the Pittsburgh Steelers waived CB Justin Gilbert whom they obtained from the Browns prior to the 2016 season for a 6th round drafter pick in 2017. *JOKINGLY*
