Position: Tight-end

School: Missouri

Awards/Accolades: AFCA amd AP first-team All-American at tight-end. Missouri’s all-time leader in receptions.

2007 season: Played in all 14 games for the Tigers, caught 84 passes for 834 yards and eight touchdowns.

Strengths: Quite possibly the best tight-end in this year’s draft (at least top two), Rucker’s size, speed, and ability to run solid routes made him a prime target for Chase Daniel at Missouri. Routinely put up good numbers in many of Missouri’s big games throughout his career.

Weaknesses: The common theme with Rucker is that he’s not a very good blocker for a tight-end. The good news is, the Browns already have a pretty good offensive line, and playing along with K2 will hopefully steer him in the right direction. Many people have compared Rucker to Winslow.

How he projects with the Browns: Martin Rucker intrigues me more-so than any other draft pick. Until recently, Kellen Winslow Jr. wasn’t working out in Berea, and apparently his knee could still be an issue. All of us want to see a healthy K2 on the field this season, but in case something happens, Rucker seems like he’d be a good fit, or at least a good back-up to Steve Heiden. He’s Missouri’s all-time leader in receptions, ahead of the likes of Justin Smith and Kellen Winslow Sr.

Position: Outside Linebacker

School: UNLV

Awards/Accolades: Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year and third-team mid-season All-American his senior year

2007 season:126 tackles, five forced fumbles, 9.5 tackles for loss, four INTs, one touchdown

Strengths: Great at stopping the run and can deliver the big hit. Goes balls-out every minute of every game.

Weaknesses: Missed half of his junior season due to an ankle injury, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue any more. This isn’t horse racing, so an ankle injury doesn’t mean the end of his career. Or death for that matter.

How he projects with the Browns: The Browns are under a new defensive coordinator in Mel Tucker this season, so Bell is likely going to have the opportunity to challenge for a starting spot. At the very least, he’ll start on special teams. Andre Davis is only getting older, and being that the Browns ranked 27th in the NFL at stopping the run last year and 30th in overall defense, Bell could be a great addition to help fix that. Savage seems to be obsessed with him, which is a good sign. After all, he did craft Baltimore’s defense back in the day.

This guy will go down in history as the most popular fourth round draft choice by the Browns.  Being the Browns number “one” pick and all he will have to lead the draft class.   I believe this guy should challenge Andra Davis for playing time immediately and should play on special teams until he officially takes over Davis’ spot. 

Bell was a great choice and could turn out to be a real gem but I was really excited about the Browns taking TE Martin Rucker from Missouri.  They traded a third round pick in next years draft to get this guy and he projects as Kellen Winslow type TE.  He was a big part of Missouri’s success last season with 84 receptions and 834 yards. 

Browns rounded out the rest of the draft with DT Ahytba Rubin, Iowa State; WR Paul Hubbard, Wisconsin; and DE Alex Hall, St. Augustine. 

The last three probably will not have any immediate impact on the team and will be mostly developmental type players. 

For a draft in which the Browns had no day one picks I thought they did pretty well with what they had.  I think they found two guys in Bell and Rucker who could potentially compete for playing time immediately.  That says a lot about two fourth round guys.  Rucker could play side by side with Winslow or play in Winslow’s spot pending resolution of his contract dispute with the Browns. 

I have to say the Browns did well trading away their first few picks because I didn’t feel this draft had much they could have used.  All the defensive ends were pretty much gone by pick 22.  But Dallas did take a pretty good RB in Felix Jones at that spot which I believe the Brown could have used.

The Browns needed defense and they got better overall with the draft of Bell and trading for Sean Rogers and Corey Williams.  This years off season as a whole was a success on paper and the Browns needs were addressed and now we have to wait and see what 2008 holds for the Browns on the field.

With that said, Phil Savage and company still managed to draft some pretty good players. I’m not going to sit here and act like I know everything about these players because I’ve barely heard of any of them and I’ve maybe seen them play once if I’m lucky.

Beau Bell seems to be all the talk in Cleveland, and the organization must have thought very high of him to trade up a few spots to get him. According to Yahoo! Sports, “It isn’t often a team can wait more than 100 picks and still get the player they wanted, but the Browns got that player in Bell. He played outside linebacker in a 4-3 at UNLV, but he will be given the chance to be the inside run-stuffer the Browns have been seeking. He describes himself as “being real physical at the point of attack,” and said he likes to “run around and hit people” while “playing under control.” Nice. I always like my linebackers when they run around and hit people. I wish the ones we already have would do such.

Another interesting pick by the Browns was tight-end Martin Rucker from Missouri. The team needed some help in the secondary due to the departure of Leigh Bodden, but they drafted two linebackers, a tight-end, wide receiver, and a defensive tackle, so drafting Rucker and the others somewhat surprised me. But back to Rucker. Some people compared him to Kellen Winslow during the draft, but I’m not so certain how legit those comparisons are. Winslow is the kind of tight-end that comes around rarely, so if Rucker really is that good, I don’t see how the Browns got him so late. Winslow isn’t working out in Berea apparently, so who knows what the deal is with his knee. Rucker could see the field early.

Overall, it wasn’t a great draft by the Browns, but it certainly wasn’t a bad one. Again, I would have liked them to take a cornerback, but must be very confident in the abilities of Eric Wright and Brandon McDonald, which makes sense because they both had outstanding rookie seasons.

On a side note, two of my friends made a great bet during the draft. One bet the other that if Derek Anderson is traded on draft day he gets to shave his arm-pit hair and the other guy has to glue it to his face. On the flip side, if Anderson isn’t traded (which he wasn’t… by the way….) my one buddy has to shave his head into a mohawk. Needless to say, we’re getting the clippers ready this weekend.

Full list of draft picks

So here we are.

Phil Savage and company don’t have a pick until the fourth round, so there’s really not a whole lot to look forward to as a Browns fan until tomorrow.

The team obviously needs to fill the void in the secondary after the Leigh Bodden trade, so it’s likely that first pick could be spent on a cornerback. Eric Wright and Brandon McDonald really stepped up in year one, and both were excellent draft picks by Savage and happened after the first round last year, so my guess is Phil Savage has his eye on a few guys with that fourth rounder.

Rumors are still floating around about dealing Derek Anderson for a high first round pick, but unless someone in the top five comes calling, don’t count on that happening. The only way I see this happening is if Glenn Dorsey or Chris Long are on the board and someone makes an offer for D.A. But again, don’t hold your breath.

So here it is, folks. Get out a cooler of Coors Light or whatever beer you prefer, a bag of Doritos, and strap on your catheter. It’s go time.

We went from not have any the past few years to having five this upcoming season.  I know this has to excite the Browns organization, players, and especially the fans.  We have one of the most exciting teams in the NFL and I believe they will live up to their potential.

The games, including three on Monday night and one each on Sunday and Thursday, are all really good games for the Browns and the NFL. Having a successful Browns franchise is really exciting because we actually can renew are storied rivalry with Steelers, one of the best rivalries in all of sports.  After all we all know it hasn’t been much of a rivalry the past few years.

This extremely tough schedule was worrying me a lot but I expect the Browns to compete and win a lot of the tougher games on their schedule.  We are playing seven playoff teams from a year ago but that is still not the toughest schedule in our division, that belongs to Pittsburgh.

With the schedule the way it is and Pittsburgh having the toughest schedule in the league I really expect the Browns to finally win the AFC North division and make a strong run in the playoffs.

Maybe I sound too confident but why not? It’s been a long time since the Browns were good enough to be respected in this league and now that they are they are rewarded with five primetime games. 

Go Brownies!

Going into the offseason we all knew what the Browns needed but we didn’t know how they would address the situations.  I thought they definitely had to trade to Derek Anderson for a first round pick in order to get a decent defensive lineman. That really sounds dumb now huh?

So the Browns worked out a three year contract with Anderson to keep him as the starting QB and maintained some stability on offense.  I have to say it is nice not to be worrying about the QB situation like we had been in the 10 years previously.

As for D-Line Savage worked some trades with Green Bay for DT Corey Williams and with Detroit for Shaun Rogers.  Both will be dramatic upgrades for the Browns at their respective positions and finally give the Browns a formidable front line to help stop the run.

Williams is still young and was the victim of Green Bay just not having the funds to pay him and the Browns were happy to give up a second round pick as they probably saw that there wasn’t going to be anything better in the draft.  Only 27 years old, he had 7 sacks and 3 forced fumbles last season.  No one on the Browns team had more than five sacks last season so this is a significant upgrade that will allow Browns linebackers Kamerion Wimbley and D’Qwell Jackson to work their magic on the outside.

Detroit gave up on Rogers because of his weight issues and at times character issues.  The Browns obviously feel they can get control of Rogers’ weight and also handle is character issues.  I really like this trade because we get that big nose tackle that the 3-4 is so dependent on and we also get a formidable four man rotation that now includes Rogers and Williams.  I don’t think Rogers’s weight is that much of a concern for the Browns because it seems like they prefer that NT position to be a big Ted Washington type guy.  Now he may have to drop some weight in order to increase his stamina and agility because one complaint in Detroit was that he was usually gassed at the end of games and couldn’t play.

Now a move that surprised me was the signing of Donte’ Stallworth as the number two receiver.  I knew we would eventually need one as Joe Jurevicius wants to retire after next season but the catch was he also wanted to be moved to the number three receiver.  This makes an already potent offense even more dangerous because not only do we have three pretty good receivers now but we also have the almighty Kellen Winslow Jr. to make things more interesting at the TE position. 

With these moves this has to make the Browns the favorites in the division, at least on paper.  I know we still have a huge mountain to climb in finally being able to beat the Steelers but I definitely think that they will be able to complete that task in their first meeting with them regardless of the venue. 
This past week has made me extremely excited about next season and I can’t wait for the season to start and we are only in March.  Will we see a few more moves from Savage and the Browns?  I am not sure what else they could do, maybe add a defensive back, cornerback, and/or safety to help bolster those positions a bit but other than that I like what they were able to accomplish without having to trade Anderson. 

All is well with the fans right?

Naturally, all of Cleveland would rather talk about the re-signing of Derek Anderson instead. If you listen to any of the local talk shows on the radio, most fans are in-fact against the signing. They argue that Anderson “sucked” over the last half of the year and that “Quinn is better” despite taking only eight regular season snaps in his rookie year. For all intents and purposes, that is their most intellegent argument on the radio call in shows to date.

Yes, for many a Browns fan, it rains everyday in Cleveland. If I were to bitch about the opening weekend, it’s the fact that I’m gonna drink an 18-pk of beer on the draft’s first day and not get to watch the Browns make a pick. Allow me to digress…

Don’t get me wrong, I still think Brady Quinn has a solid future with the Browns, but since when is it a bad idea to bring back the guy who accounted for 32 total touchdowns and won 10 games?

Anderson is only about a year older than Brady Quinn and has better arm strength. While it is true that his accuracy can be so bad at times that some in the Dawg Pound swear he threw the ball left-handed, the guy still has a lot of room to improve as an NFL quarterback. Don’t forget, he’s also from Scappose, Oregon which is the same town as his friend and reigning PMOY Sara Jean Underwood. Yay!

Also, it is the smart move for the Browns to hedge their bets for one more season at the quarterback position before making that final decision. In 2007, there were a total of 64 starting quarterbacks in the NFL. For those of you keeping score at home, there are only 32 team. That’s quite a large number of injured QB’s or guys who just plain suck at their jobs. Either way, it puts the Browns in a good comfort zone considering they have two good ones for 2008.

That final statement in the previous paragraph should sum it all up for the upcoming season. GM Phil Savage pretty much said recently the same thing that it would be too big of a risk to trade one QB and then have a possible injury ruin all the progress the team has made by having to play an inferior guy to run the offense (ahem, a Ken Dorsey). Instead, why don’t we just enjoy the fact that the Browns are finally AFC contenders?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

It started earlier this week with the signing of Derek Anderson to a new three-year deal, then a day later with the trading of Leigh Bodden to Detroit for defensive tackle Shaun Rodgers, and yesterday, in a move that I think surprised a lot of people, the team signed ex-Patriot Donte Stallworth to a seven-year deal.

I know Phil Savage has a lot of money to throw around this off-season, but the Stallworth move doesn’t make much sense to me. I understand that Joe Jurevicious is going to retire fairly soon and we’ll need to replace him, but is that really a high priority at this point? I was hoping Savage would spend money addressing his team’s defense that was ranked almost last in the league in every category, not the wide receiver position where the team was pretty solid last season.

I highly doubt Savage is done making moves. By April, the Browns will have a first round pick in the NFL Draft, and it could come at the expense of Derek Anderson, which wouldn’t be the worst thing. If Miami or Minnesota offer its first round pick for Anderson, there’s no question I think that Savage will pull the trigger.

The Leigh Bodden trade came as somewhat of a shocker. It seems like most fans in Cleveland either loved or hated Bodden, and I was part of the group that thought his six interceptions were somewhat misleading because of his inability to be a solid cover-corner most of the time. To me,  this trade means Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel have a ton of faith in Brandon McDonald and Eric Wright, both of whom are only in their second year in the league. Both showed flashes of brilliance at times last season, and I’m especially excited to see how well McDonald will do if he takes over the starting job. Rodgers had seven sacks in 16 games for the Lions last season, so we’ll see if he can be the pass rusher the team has been looking for.

We’ll see what happens in the next 54 days. I think once April rolls around Savage will aquire a first round pick.

If Anderson would have signed with another team, Cleveland would have received a first and third round pick as compensation in April’s NFL Draft, but since they traded last year’s first rounder to the Cowboys for the rights to draft Brady Quinn, the team remains without a first rounder.

This somewhat surprised me. I was actually in the process of writing how D.A. is going to test the market now that the FA signing period has started, but this obviously puts that to a screeching halt.

I thought for a minute that Crennel and Savage were ready to hand the keys to the offense over to Brady Quinn, and I’m still not ruling out a sign-and-trade that could make that a reality. Even if the sign-and-trade doesn’t happen, Savage has already stated there will be a battle for the starting job in training camp. After Anderson declined the high-tender, I was content with Quinn taking over the offense because of what the Browns were going to receive as compensation if Anderson left. A first-round pick would have been nice. But who knows, a lot of things can change before April’s draft.

Thoughts?