Great article on the Browns draft, the war room, and how the Browns traded down and got Wimbley. Most interesting part -- that they weren't interesting in Ernie Sims, Manny Lawson, Tamba Hali, Mathias Kiwanuka and Thomas Howard as OLB in the 3-4. In particular, I thought Lawson and maybe Hali would be pretty good prospects.
The article also suggests Sowell was drafted in part because Cosey Coleman's contract expires afte the '06 season. (Though I'm wondering if maybe we'd be better off replacing Andruzzi.)
The draft recap on WTAM the other night was pretty cool. Maybe there isn't much news, but tons of interesting tidbits.
My favorite part -- where Savage says he screwed up the GRE before grad school because he realized halfway through the test that he was one question off filling in the bubbles on the answer sheet.
Dilfer, Harrington? What is going on with that? Harrington is thankfully out of the picture. Dilfer, however, could be traded any day. I don't think that is a good idea, unless he's secretly a very bad presence in the locker room. Something is not adding up here, and you can count on some negative anecdotes leaking out from both sides of this squabble.
Whatever the case, Dilfer is clearly on the way out in Cleveland and is now rumored to be headed to the 49ers. I have to say -- I don't get it. He'll go to San Francisco and still be the backup, expect the team will probably be worse than the Browns. There's only two reasonable conclusions: 1) he just does not get along with Carthon, or 2) he doesn't get along or feels mislead by Savage after being brought in here as "the starter." If it's #1 then I think it will remain to be seen who's right and who's wrong. If it's #2 I think Savage might be guilty of overstating Dilfer's significance initially, but for a supposedly savvy veteran Dilfer is pretty naive to think his hold on the starter's job was going to be anything other than tenuous.
Looking back at the draft I have to laugh and shake my head at the Buffalo Bills. By most accounts, it was the Bills pick that could have really thrown a wrench in the Browns plans if they had taken Bunkley or Ngata, as widely expected. I had theorized that the Bills would pick a guy who had unexpectedly slid, which at the time of the pick I was convinced would happen with Lienert. Instead they reached for a corner. As a result, the Cardinals (Lienert), Eagles (Bunkley), Browns (trade down), and Ravens (Ngata) benefited. But in a way the Browns might have benefited even more had the Bills selected their most frequently projected pick -- Bunkley. It would have forced the Ravens to pay retail to move up to #12. And only after the Browns picked Wimbley would we fans have known that Savage liked him the best. And that would assume we believed him when he told us that.
With generally good-to-very-good draft grades in, I think we can call the Browns 2006 draft a success. You can expect Rich Passen will write something inflammatory about it too -- that is, I think, the sign of a good thing occurring. To use Savage's analogy, it's clear this draft included a lot of singles and doubles, and maybe more.
In another sign that Nick Saban will drive the Dolphins into the sand, the fish are trying out Marcus Vick. I hope he looks just good enough to make the roster and tease the Dolphins for the next few years.
Count me in when it comes to rooting for the Titans to hang on to McNair all summer. Or better yet, re-sign him (as would be best for that team anyway, though it's probably too late for that). This way we can all enjoy seeiing Billick twist in the wind a little bit more. Hey, wouldn't this be a great year to invite NFL Films into Ravens headquarters?
Gotta love 4th OL Sowells for admitting he was in the bathroom when his name was called in the draft.
Hehe:
On Monday, running back Edgerrin James joked that he was going to lobby owner Bill Bidwill to get wireless Internet set up in the team's locker room. As it turns out, the team already has it. James was just having trouble configuring his laptop to work with the wireless. One of the team's technology experts helped him Tuesday.
Team officials were also measuring his locker for the installation of a television that James is purchasing. That service is available to other players, too.
Imagine what guys who played in the NFL 20, 30 years ago must be thinking.
I'm just one man, but this man is actually happy to hear that NFL video game football monopolizer Electronic Arts lost money at the end of 2005, presumably when Madden '07 was flying off store shelves. I wonder how much the hundreds of millions in license fees they are playing the NFL played into things. Console video gamers everywhere should hope for continued losses and hope that EA and the NFL realize it is in everyone's best interests top cancel their licensing deal and let a couple other game producers in on the NLF licensing goodies. It's worth remembering what happening in 2004 -- when the Sega NFL 2K franchise dropped its price to $20 or $30 bucks and produced an arguably better game. You would have though the NFL would have responded by merely upping its licensing fees to both Sega and EA; instead they cut an exclusive deal with EA that looks like a financial loser for EA. What happens if EA loses more and more money? You can bet those "new" versions of Madden will contain ever fewer actual enhancements each year. And it's a matter of time until someone creates a superior football game that avoids NFL licensing by creatively allowing players to create their own custom team and player mods and making them available to other players over the internet. Pretty soon no one will "own" the rights to the team names, player names, and all the other stuff makes so much cash on.