Published March 29, 2008 03:37 am - Decisions, decisions. Should the Browns have picked ... Gerard Warren or LaDainian Tomlinson? Kellen Winslow Jr. or Ben Roethlisberger? Kamerion Wimbley or Haloti Ngata? Next month, should they choose Dwight Lowery or Antwaun Molden?
Feeling a draft with Browns Taking a closer look at work done by Davis, Savage
STEVE DOERSCHUK Canton Repository
Decisions, decisions. Should the Browns have picked ...
Gerard Warren or LaDainian Tomlinson?
Kellen Winslow Jr. or Ben Roethlisberger?
Kamerion Wimbley or Haloti Ngata?
Next month, should they choose Dwight Lowery or Antwaun Molden?
If you haven’t heard of Lowery or Molden, cornerbacks from San Jose State and Eastern Kentucky, well, it’s different this year.
They represent the Captain Anonymous-types who figure to be left when the Browns finally get to pick in Round 4.
They speak to the probability a Browns draft that doesn’t look very interesting won’t be. At least, it probably won’t be three years from now, when the grades come in.
Phil Savage sounds optimistic, of course. The fourth-year general manager says his personnel team has honed in on the best-of-the-rest phase of the April 26-27 draft, not wasting time on out-of-reach picks.
“I think we’ll do as good a job as we’ve ever done on Day 2 of the draft,” he says. “We’ll try to find a diamond in the rough.”
There have been a few pieces of silver in Savage’s first three romps through Rounds 4 and later.
It can even be argued fullback Lawrence Vickers is a half-caret diamond, unearthed in Round 7. Vickers doesn’t play a premium position, but he played it well enough in 2007 to be a Pro Bowl alternate.
It could be that Brandon McDonald, a Round 5 pick last year, is a latter-day Anthony Henry, a starter-quality cornerback with a better sense for the game than some corners picked in Round 1.
Henry, now with the Cowboys and headed for retirement as a very rich man, was a fourth-round pick by Butch Davis in 2001.
Yes, Davis was the guy whose 2001 decisions Warren to Cleveland rather than Richard Seymour or Tomlinson in Round 1, Quincy Morgan instead of Chad Johnson in Round 2, and James Jackson over Rudi Johnson in Round 3.
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