OT: All 14 draft picks make Browns 53

[RobertWeathers]

Yeah, it's pretty clear that Cleveland is getting a moneyball style overhaul. Reading more into it than that, at least at this early point in time, makes no real sense.

Yep I bet DePodesta has some kind of sabremetrics to determine that a player making $600k contributes to the same # of wins as a player making $2m

 

[varjao]

More than signing all the rookies, they need to sign the right guys, that are willing to play there. I think they should stop drafting the stars, blue chips players coming out of college. These guys get so much ass-kissing before the draft they become all prima donas before playing a single snap.

Cleveland by all accounts (never been there) is not a very nice place to live, these guys wanna play in Florida, California, NY, maybe Texas, or in a competitive franchise. So they are drafted with high expectations, from a team that is a mess, at first thought they might get a little excited with the possibility to turn a franchise around but then things inevitably go south and then comes the noise, pressure, the results don't show up and they start to question wtf I'm doing here.

This move (the 14 rookies) basically has 2 purposes, give Jackson a free pass for a year and get rid of the trash that I don't is that bad, just a result of bad coaching and all the mess that is the Browns. I don't think this will be the start of something good, even under similar circumstances I think BB had a much better thing when he started his tenure with the Patriots. In my opinion this will only setback the Browns for more years because it's the Browns, nothing works there, they suck, and then when Jackson gets the axe they will be in a similar position the Eagles were post-Chip Kelly, needing to rebuild again and cleaning the mess that was left after the party.

A coach/GM hired by a team has 3 sources of players to build a new roster, the draft, free agency and the players already in the house. When you draft let's say the standard 7 or 8 players and sign only half of them, the players that you didn't sign are not wasted picks, they were used in the process of filtering the roster to get to your ideal 53 man. Abusing of only one source that gives you the youngest, cheapest but most inexperienced players doesn't seems like a very good idea, I understand the rationale behind this move but again it's the Browns so it's not gonna work.

 

[rookBoston]

When BB "turned over" his roster, it was over a long period... 2000-2003. It didn't just happen in 2000, and then in 2001 he had his dream team. He inherited some players, like Kevin Faulk, Troy Brown, Bruschi. And as he was able, he replaced players over time. But it wasn't a sudden thing.

The roster in the early 2000s was not 53-players deep with quality... lots of JAGs on those teams... just because that's all they had. What makes the 2001 team special is that they played the game, collectively, way above their talent level. It was a matter of mindset and commitment to the scheme. It was brilliant coaching with mixed and mediocre football talent. Sure, McGinest and Ty Law were on the team, but a lot of okay players around them who just bought into what they were asked to do.

BB found David Patten walking the street. He grew Stephen Neal into an excellent gaurd. He turned Jermaine Wiggins into a mostly servicable weapon for Brady. Earthwind Moreland? Who turns camp trash like these guys into players?

It wasn't until three or four years into his "turn over", and a few Superbowl wins, that you had the sense that BB had finally built the roster that he wanted. Example: it wasn't until Seymour's third season, when BB brought Ted Washington in to play NT, that BB finally had enough players of the right body type to switch to a base 3-4 defensive front. Up to that point, he was just maximizing what he had through coaching.

And it wasn't until 2003 and 2004 that you had the sense that the talent on the team was a full 53 players deep. The stellar 2003 draft class filled out a lot of roster depth that had been jammed with JAG talent. But, I think that if the 2003 draft class came into camp in 2016, it wouldn't have been as impactful because the level of competition these days is so much higher; Ty Warren, Eugene Wilson, Asante Samuel, Dan Koppen... these guys were all rookie starters because they had no one on the depth chart ahead of them worth the spot. Tully Banta-Cain would not make the 2016 roster as a rookie with Rufus Johnson and Geno Grissom competing with him for a job. Dan Klecko would not make the 2016 roster as a rookie, either.

It wasn't until the last five years of so when you had the sense that the talent on the team was legit 65 or 70 players deep. This season, the Pats has credible players all the way though their PS and into a shadow roster that is easily a dozen players deep.