Well another football season is just around the corner, the draft hype is finally behind us and we look to the future with hope. Over the past month or so trading card companies have been releasing their pre season sets to satisfy the collector, obviously they are only draft related players because that's the hot commodity at the moment and full rosters have not been set yet.
With that said I'm declaring I have gotten the collecting bug again, over the past week or so I have been grabbing some packs here and there with the hopes of getting that rare, serial numbered, rookie autograph card. At the moment I don't have any autograph cards but I did manage to get both of the TWO Browns rookie cards (Trent & Brandon) released in the set from Upper Deck, I never got the checklist to see how many variations there are in the set though. I also managed to get a few variations of both said Browns rookies in the Sage set, which have many different variations as well as autograph cards. On a side note there is a guy in FL that is selling the 1 of 1 Trent Richardson autograph card from Sage on Ebay. his asking price is a mere $1,180.00 should you feel the urge to throw away some cash. LOL
I would assume we have a few collectors here at DBN, do you still collect or have you retired from collecting? The fond memories of card collecting with dad, going to hobby shows, trading cards with buddies for the elusive card you just couldn't seem to get in a pack. Those days are back and can be a great thing to introduce to your little Browns fan in your household.This years crop of cards is looking to be quite nice visually, cards have come a long way over the decades and some are just stunning to look at, while others can be taken or left without much consideration.
I would like to make note of one of my favorite cards from the past, for it's age this has to be in the early onset of the changes made to cards over the years, that have made some purists cringe and the casual collector mostly adore.
I give you the 1992 Skybox Prime Poster card #184. Larger view HERE.
Hey all, I've read the site for a while now, but never bothered posting until now. I wanted to be more educated on the draft this year, so I decided to shadow draft the Browns this year. Basically, whenever the Browns were on the clock, I was too. I drafted based not on what I thought the Browns would do, but on what I thought would make the most sense for the Browns. So this is a recap of my draft and what my new Shadow Browns would look like. I was interested in getting feedback on how this team looks, just a kind of parallel universe Browns if you will. Be warned, I'm no draft expert or anything, never even played for my high school team, so my analysis might not be the most accurate. Be warned, it's a little length as well.
I have been thinking a lot recently about the history of the expansion Browns and the players we have seen come and go in that period of time. I thought it would be fun (or masochistic) to put together rosters of the best players we've had and see how our line ups match up. (Sorry if this drags out bad memories, but that's what being a Browns fan is all about.)
While I realize it is months away from even the first depth chart to be released by the Browns, I wanted to take a shot at (as well as allow others to) what our boys in brown could be looking like. I don't post very often but am very intrigued by much of what I read, so here goes nothing!
There you are, one of the top players in the upcoming NFL Draft. You sit in the Green Room anxiously waiting for your name to be called. You hope it's the Cleveland Browns, with the number that starts with the sweet 216, who grace your cell phone.
As you sit, you think of all the memories the Cleveland Browns gave you as a child. From the earliest memories of your Chomps stuffed animal, to your most recent ones, such as sharing a beer with your father as you watched a Browns receiver seal a game winning touchdown catch against the Steelers, sending the Browns to the Playoffs.
The Browns are in desperate need of your position, and you're almost certain they want you. It's always been your dream to be a Cleveland Brown and to make your father proud.
Suddenly, you're taken out of your daydreams and memories. Your phone is ringing, but it's too early; it's not the Browns' turn. Maybe they traded up for you? You look at one of the many TVs in the room and see that it says in large lettering:
"THE STEELERS PICK IS IN".
As you may know, Cleveland drafted Brandon Weeden in the first round with the 22nd overall pick last Thursday. Weeden threw a superb 71 touchdowns last year, and has a rocketlauncher for a right arm. However, by the time the one-time Yankee second rounder, develops into an NFL quarterback he will be in his thirties.
The following is from Chris Brown's Grantland article:
Weeden played in probably the best pass-first system in college football — and maybe all of football, including the NFL. The offense traces its roots back to the one designed by Mike Leach, but Oklahoma State and Weeden's version was installed before the 2010 season, Weeden's first as a starter, by Dana Holgorsen. That system has produced lots of prolific passers who didn't go on to great NFL careers — and Weeden also happened to throw a lot of his passes to fifth overall pick Justin Blackmon — so there's always the worry that Weeden won't be able to replicate his prior success.
But none of the other quarterbacks from that offense had arms like Weeden's. And in any event, Oklahoma State's system, which operated at a breakneck pace and required him to not only make complicated reads after the snap but often combined runs and passes into the same play, required Weeden to make more decisions about what to do with the football on a down-to-down basis than any other quarterback in the draft.
And if Weeden was a "system quarterback," he was a very rare breed: one who not only learned the system but taught it himself. When Holgorsen left to coach at West Virginia, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy actually asked Weeden to give input on who should be hired to run the Cowboys' attack. Once Todd Monken was brought in, he and Weeden held cram sessions, but it was Monken doing the learning. The results speak for themselves: Oklahoma State got even better: scoring more points, averaging more yards, and winning more games, including a Fiesta Bowl shootout with first overall pick Andrew Luck.
The 2012 Draft is finally over, despite some heated controversy and some picks that may have been taken too high. Despite all of this there is a positive light in that we have picked up several players that we can plug in, some good rotational guys and some developmental guys. Hopefully the outlook for Browns fans can be up, my goal is to summarize our draft and put out as much info as I can on each pick, hopefully not redundant and useful. (All videos, Stories, Links, and Pictures linked here belong to their respective Owners & writers I am just trying to put up a summary).
Did we close the gap in talent with the draft ? Looking at the drafts for each team, I don't know. It looks like they all got did a good job too.
On the offensive line. We got Schwartz and OG/OT Miller. Steelers upgraded with OG DeCastro and OT Adams. Bengals drafted OG/OT Zeitler and the Ravens drafted OG Osemele. Who did better ? Why didn't we pick up C/OG Mike Brewster ?
Did the Bengals get a better DT 6 spots lower when we drafted Hughes and they picked Thompson in the 3rd ?
The Bengals also drafted WR Sanu TE Charles and Safety Iloka I noticed.
The Ravens picked up CB Asa Jackson and WR Streeter in the later rounds.
Just some players that caught my eyes. How do you think we did ?
Tom Heckert is displaying a tendency to focus in on specific players and repeatedly shows a tendency to select players earlier in the draft than they are projected. As the Browns choose in the 3rd day of the draft, questions about the competency of the front office remain.
