WhoKnows

Belichick doesn't worry me as much as Atlanta actually drafting a good QB. That’s the real worry we should have. They have weapons and a decent D and if they upgrade the QB spot, they would be a favorite for the division. TB actually has the most cap space but Atlanta is in good shape (just a bit more than us). NO is the only team that has a crazy amount of cap work to do.

It’s funny how jaded some people get about players that they can’t do a little deeper analysis. Gettleman, KB, Rhule and now Tepper are such triggers that if you say man, I wish KB was healthy in the SB or the NO playoff game people think you are choosing KB over Cam. I’m not saying I love Rhule or Hurney if I honestly say that I miss both of them over the crap fest that Fitterer and Reich gave us this year. I hated signing Teddy but at least we hung with two 1 seeds that year and heck we actually thought about playoffs in the first quarter of 2021. There’s a lot of gray area and degrees of gray in this world. Some people only see black and white.

C’mon, dude had 18TDs in 2.5 years with us even with the ACL tear and recovery issues. He makes that catch that Clay dropped. I don’t care how much people despise him, he was our best WR between Smith leaving and DJ. A healthy KB from 2014-2017 would be the best WR on the current team. I’m not saying his mental state couldn’t handle the ACL tear and his mom, but let’s not act like he was garbage when he was healthy. Bersin and Clay weren’t better. Doesn’t mean I want him back or that he was great, just that trading him at that point was a bad move. We got nothing for him and our WRs completely blew that game so trading KB in season was a mistake.

Don’t forget that Marty was the GM and traded away KB. I know, I know, but reducing the WR depth was a bad move and KB would have at least caught the Clay TD drop. Funchess was hurt but Marty should never have traded our top WR when we had no depth, especially when he picked Rashaun Golden with KB’s pick. Don’t forget that DG also got CMC who had over 100 yards (as did Olsen). If we keep KB, we likely win that game just on the Clay end zone drop (followed by a short FG miss).

In which case we of course politely decline and then decide we’d rather have a 3rd round comp pick.

This was why Marty 2.0 and Fitterer were so disappointing. I know DG was bad at many things but at least we were only complaining about LT and speed bump. After DG left, we lost Turner, Norwell, Ryan and Williams and we did almost nothing other than mediocre FAs until the OL was so bad in 2020/2021 that we were forced to draft a LT at 6th overall. It’s 2023 and our best OL is still a guy DG drafted in 2017. I was very disappointed that Hurney didn’t go IOL in 2019/2020 when that was incredibly deep and then again when Fitterer basically ignored OL in 2021 when it was as big a need as QB. OL often have hits on day 3 of the draft. TBH, it feels like a couple OL every draft in day 3 is a great strategy. Maybe even OL/DL only in day 3. You can never have enough depth and lucky hits there. Only exceptions are if there are extreme BPA drops.

Disagree on trading down. 33rd should be a great BPA pick. Someone (probably a few) 1st rounders will slip out of the first due to a few reaches and just fit with drafting team. We have the perfect opportunity to go BPA at every pick. Only way I’d trade down is if we got a later second plus a 2025 2nd. We won’t be good next year so great 2025 picks are great value to us. We don’t need more picks, we need picks to turn into impact players because we have Brown in 2024 and that’s it. Luvu and Brown aren’t even under contract yet. The entire rest of our team is replaceable. The top teams have more pro bowlers than we have non-JAGs. I’d think about adding Horn but he’d have to play a full year first.

Burns by himself will likely be better than all of 2023. Agree on 2021. I remember pre-draft that I, and others, were screaming to basically go almost 100% OL because Marty had ignored OL drafting from 2018-2020 except Little, who none of us wanted, and Daley. We passed on Slater, Humphrey and Tre Smith for Horn, TMJ and a long snapper and our current OL and OL depth suffered because we didn’t address at all our 1b priority (1a being QB).

I’d be interested to know if any GM has made as many trade aways of picks as Fitterer did, in only 3 years no less. Note that I included the full cost to get that player (pick used as well). Darnold - 2, 4, 6 Young - 1, 1, 2, 2, DJ (GB offered a 1st) CJ - 3 Baker - 5 Corral - 3, 4 DJ Johnson - 3, 4 Truly amazing for the poo we actually got/drafted. 2 1sts (3 with Moore), 3 2nds, 3 3rds, 3 4ths, a 5th and a 6th. Oh the humanity, we basically gave 3 drafts worth of 1st to 4th round picks in 3 years of a GM. I mean, I have to give Fitterer credit for just how much he dismantled this team and set back its future.

Or he learned one thing from Hurney, how to survive the axe.

I have zero clue, just that again when measuring Fitterer against completely awful GMs, Fitterer still seems worse.

Still better. He drafted Calvin Johnson and several multi-year starters. The other thing is that he left the Lions with the parting gift of a #1 overall pick when he got fired which turned into Stafford. He did not trade away that pick. Terrible drafter yet still overall, his reign of terror was not as bad as Fitterer.

Mayock was terrible but he didn’t spend years under a good GM (learned nothing) and he drafted Maxx Crosby, Josh Jacobs, Moreau and Renfroe in 2019 even with a shitty first rounder. That’s better than Fitterer’s picks. Also, more importantly Mayock did not handicap the Raiders upon exit by trading the next draft’s #1 overall pick and the following drafts 2nd rounder. Mayock also didn’t refuse a game changing trade for Burns while also never extending him a year and a half later. It’s funny because Mayock was a failed experiment and still he was not as bad as Fitterer.

Funny thing is I got it for something else my boys wanted to watch a couple weeks ago so the timing worked out. I haven’t seen Oppenheimer either and my youngest wants to watch it with me when it comes out in a month. I’ll likely dump it after that.

No kidding. I know it’s been gone over and over but when Hubbard is our best value pick in 3 drafts and he is a replaceable RB, that tells you how bad our 1st round picks have been for picking 1, 6, 8 and 9 before trades. If you draft well, that should be 4 pro bowl level players not the best pick being a guy who’s good when he plays one out of every 3 games.

Honestly, our best future is that Young is given a year by the new staff and leads us to a top pick in 2025. If anyone watched the Miami game, it felt like we were watching Young’s absolute ceiling with solid weapons. It was painful watching Waddle get crushed and almost crushed by two sidelines passes that took forever and a day to get to him. KC’s and Houston’s WRs/TEs got open and Mahomes and Stroud hit them while they were still open. Tua’s balls let the defenders get all the way to the WRs. Young has basically the same arm. If I’m Miami, I’m having serious discussions because I’m not sure Tua can get us to the SB and Tua is far more seasoned and better right now than Young. The only way we get out of this mess is if we get the right coaches/GM and they realize this is not a 1-2 year fix and they slow roll our build. Get the beat talent/high ceiling guys in 2024’s draft, trade anything that moves that isn’t a cheap building block for the future. Get as good a draft slot for 2025 as you can with Young leading the tank and get our QB in 2025/2026 as I don’t have a clue who is coming out in 2025. If the QB isn’t there keep adding the BPAs to the roster and roll over cap space. Basically the same damn plan as we should have done in 2020 and 2022 that our idiots didn’t get and drafted and traded so poorly it’s almost comical.

I was very impressed by Slowik. Yes, Stroud played well but his guys were consistently open and most times wide open. Collins has developed but he, Schultz, Jordan and others aren’t Justin Jefferson level. The Texans scheme looks good. Guys like Singletary, Brown, Collins, Dell as a rookie, Jordan and Schultz all took a nice step forward. Stroud had an impact but again it was impressive that guys were so open.

It’s really not hard to watch the game and also make some comparisons. Sure, their situations aren’t the same, but let’s be honest, the QB play/talent is also not even close to the same. It’s just being honest to say that our organization made a huge freaking mistake.

Gotta give the Texans credit but damn, I didn’t realize how bad the Browns D was on the road. They are letting WRs/TEs just run downfield and get 5-10 yards wide open all the time. It’s bizarre because I thought they were so good and even on run plays they are missing tackles and just feel like they are always chasing.

Man, it sucks watching these refs. I mean, how do you not see the hit way before the pass got to Njoku.

Yeah, it really hurts watching teams realizing how talent devoid we are because our GM put together 3 horrible drafts (historically bad like the old Browns taking Manziel, Richardson, Weeden, etc. year after year) and traded away picks and our best players and got nothing in return.

We would have trash Bryce because he wouldn’t have thrown it and gotten sacked or he would have thrown is 5 yards away from Collins.

Maybe a better arm? He absolutely has a better arm. If Young had a solid arm, I think most of us would say he still has a chance to be good. The problem lies squarely with his physical limitations and that’s why most of us don’t think he can ever improve enough to be a good starter.

Fitterer said he loved Young and had been following him for a year prior. We completely flubbed it and I don’t believe Reich and McCown were fighting for Stroud. The same amount of good things and smiles were said about Young by Reich as well. The CYA that he truly wanted on Stroud came out when he was on the hot seat. If our new coach and McCown laid it out on the line that Stroud has to be the pick and that he fit their offense perfectly, there’s no doubt in my mind we take Stroud. It gets tiresome and frankly silly that there’s still an effort by some (not directed at you) to excuse Reich and Fitterer as well (being too nice/collaborative). They aren’t here anymore, why are some still trying to remove blame? This was a complete fug up and we are where we are because of Tepper’s mismanagement, Fitterer’s complete lack of ability and Reich/Brown’s terrible offense and coaching (OL). You couldn’t have done worse overall as an organization if you were intentionally trying to sabotage this team. It will very likely be years before we see success.

I just want the Browns to win. I don’t think I can deal with the pre-game talking heads and announcers lathering up Stroud’s amazing year and him being able to do things everything. Also, it hurt watching a Mahomes segment on how he was a point guard in high school where he says being a point guard helped him with his vision and off platform throws. Our point guard was not really successful doing that except one time when Chark fumbled it out of the end zone.