Draft hits:
Thomas
Quinn
Eric Wright
Vickers
Harrison
McDonald (except last week)
Alex Hall
Justin Hamilton
Edwards
Pool

Misses:
Wilson
Minter
Oshinowo
Purcell
Pittman
Steptoe
Paul Hubbard
McDonald (last week)
Wimbley
Jackson?
Sowells
Frye
Perkins
McMillan
Speegle
Hoffman
Dunn

Jury is still out:
Rucker
Bell
Rubin
Leon Williams?

I took draft round in to account. For instance; Wimbley, who I think is an OK player and is worth keeping on our roster but is not in the top 10 in the league at his position, is listed as a “miss”. Alex Hall, a 7th rounder of whom I expected nothing actually made the roster and is playing above anyone’s expectations and thus is listed as a “hit”. Justin Hamilton was a good 7th round pick and I still don’t think we should have gotten rid of him for Sorensen, Adams, etc.

Feel free to disagree on these.

no argument from me. 11 Hits and 17 misses, good if your hitting in the 4 hole but not in the NFL draft. Browns have some interesting and important decisions to make in the next 3 months.

How do you count hits on guys who were traded for high draft picks? The probability of success of a higher pick is better than a lower pick. If you trade the higher pick away, your draft avg would tend to drop, but the production of that pick would be transfered to the player you traded for ie, Rogers.

He wasn’t drafted, but you have to give credit to him for signing Cribbs when all 32 teams in the draft passed on him. Whether it was he who made the call or a local scout, he was signed under Phil’s watch.

I think the thing that REALLY stands out is that after four years, only ONE linebacker is listed as a hit, and he is a rookie from this season. Our 3-4 system is in critical need of playmaking linebackers, but we don’t have any.

I realize that we dedicated one year entire to the offensive line and this past entire year to the defensive line, but you expect players to be sprinkled in at other positions (like we were able to do with the secondary).

I think that draft recap is about right.

For the record I’m pro-Savage. I think he’s put together a talented team, light years beyond the team he took over. I think he’ll continue to improve and continue to improve this team.

That said, a few more anti-Savage arguments and my take on them.

1. He let Anthony Henry go in order to sign Baxter.
That, in hindsight, was a monumentally poor decision. I didn’t like the move at the time, and it’s gone about as poorly as possible despite the fact that Henry has been unspectacular (but solid) in Dallas. I’d argue there’s no way he could have predicted the horrific series of injuries Baxter suffered so hindsight is even better than 20/20 here.

2. He gave DA a large, guaranteed contract instead of selling high.
This was a move I was very torn on. On one hand, you always want talent and depth at the QB position (or any other for that matter) and DA proved he had talent. On the other hand, there was the serious risk that DA was a flash-in-the-pan type player and passing on trades would negate his value to the team when it was at its highest. He chose the conservative route, but I don’t blame him after the high-profile injuries he’s had to compensate for. How would fans have reacted if Savage traded DA and then Quinn got hurt badly in the preseason? We’d have been stuck with Dorsey or an off the street player or a rookie and our highly touted team’s season would have been dead in the water. Fans would have called for blood. Keeping DA was the safer choice at the time, and having made that decision he had to do what he could to instill confidence in DA’s head. So, he gave him the guarantees. You’re the guy, go get em.

3. He drafted Frye.
I’ll admit I liked the move at the time. I bought some of the media scouting hype that had him as a very late 1st or 2nd round pick. When he “fell” to us in the third it seemed to good to be true. It very much was. Let’s not dwell on Frye-bashing because I could do that all day, but suffice to say for a guy that was supposed to be an excellent talent scout but perhaps with a blind spot for QBs, drafting Frye did not do Savage any favors.

4. He passed on Ngata for Wimbley.
I HATED this move at the time. HATED IT. Then, Wimbley got all those sacks his rookie year with only an one move and it seemed like he had all the potential in the world if he got better at run-stuffing and developed some inside moves. Well, it’s years later and he’s not developed at all as a player. He’s limited in the same ways he was in his first NFL game and he’s too easy to shut down. Meanwhile, Ngata is anchoring the BAL line and making quite a name for himself. Sh*t.

Those are the ones that have stuck with me. It’s easy for us to forget what he’s had to overcome in Cleveland. He had no input on the Crennel decision. He had very little talent on the team when he came here. Fans are desperate for a winner, and a we’re not exactly the nicest fan base. Then, the injuries. What other team has lost players as unexpectedly as Bentley and Baxter, and in more damaging and permanent ways? Those were two of Savage’s biggest FA wins and they never contributed to our 07 team. Winslow, one of the few incumbent talents, has had to overcome ridiculous injury issues. Braylon tore an ACL. Tucker went nuts. Stallworth hasn’t been able to contribute. Give Savage time, and I’m willing to bet he focuses a lot more on the draft now that he has a talented (if shallow) team.

I feel that Savage has done an excellent job in talent evaluation. There are some misses (Wimbley being the biggest one), but many more hits. When Savage and Crennel came in the team had absolutely nothing. The browns drafts before Savage were absolutely atrocious. Now at least they have an average amount of talent.

Savage has not been as good as providing a stable organization. The Browns often look bad. For me, I care nothing about PR, winning games will make this all go away.

More than likely Phil survives and Romeo goes. I’d be suprised if Lerner didn’t give Savage a chance to hand pick his next coach with the understanding that we had better win in 2009.

It’s tough to hand out a grade until I see how Brady Quinn performs the rest of the season. Assuming he lives up to his hype and we go say…. 4-3 the rest of the way I’d give Savage a grade in the C +/B – range.

IMO, his biggest accomplishment has been the solidification of the offensive and defensive lines. When healthy, our O line is one of the best and our defensive line featuers one of the best interior linemen in the game and several solid players. Injuries have somewhat hampered the D line this year and I can’t wait to see how it performs if/when Corey Williams and Robaire Smith are back at full strength.

My dream scenario for the next year?

Oakland, in their infinate wisdom declines to re-sign Nnamdi Asomugha and we are able to win the bidding war.

Unload Anderson for a 3rd round pick if possible.

Hang on to Winslow.

Draft the best rush linebacker or corner back available in rounds one and two. Draft the best available player with remaining picks. We need depth everywhere. I’d love to pick up a late round steal at RB.

An interseting caveat, if Chris Wells is still available when we pick in the 1st round do we take him? It would be hard to pass on him. Otherwise I like taking the best available defensive player in the 1st round with a focus on LB.

( no I have not been smoking anything and please don’t name call)

What we have in three years time is a team with more talent and ability than before. In fact, its light years better. Yes, we have problem areas such as LB, CB and depth across the board. But I still think this thing is headed in the right direction. The inertia is with us. We are in the “sometimes we can play well, sometimes we can’t” phase of rebuilding this team into a contender. We still need time to get more and better pieces.

I DO NOT WANT TO BLOW IT UP AND START OVER..(it will lead me to heavy drinking again). Stay the course! Mutiny only if things get really bad like less than 5 wins next year.

There is no reason to blow the team up, even if we get all new coaches. This team has talent, no coach will disagree. That’s different from when Savage came in and the team had to be dismantled and rebuilt.

The defense could be kept in a 3-4 or switched to a 4-3 with little trouble. The offense might have a mild learning curve in a new offense but Quinn (unlike, say DA) seems to be very smart and capable of learning a new offense. Also, there’s no guarantee we’d lose Chud if a new HC came in.

The biggest problem we have now, is that Crennel is a bad coach. He’s awful. He makes no adjustments. He can’t manage the clock. He’s supposed to be a defensive guru but his defenses have shown poor results and unimaginative play. He makes poor personnel decisions. He’s losing this team (see recent remarks by J Lewis). He must be replaced before we lose everything we’ve gained in the past few years.

Yeah. I understand he sucks at being a head coach. We all understand that. i just don’t think Phil, or whoever is in charge of Phil will pull the trigger unless play gets drastically worse over the next 8 games. I see BQ making games much more competitive and that, in turn saving Romeo’s bacon.

i’m firmly and unquestionably on the fence on savage. how’s that for conviction. listen, clearly the guy has built a talented team out of exactly nothing. holdovers from the butch days…winslow and sean jones? is that all? for that he is to be praised.

the reasons i’ve moved to the fence, though, are: we’re talking about potentially bringing in a guy like cowher, who would basically spell phil’s ouster, so i’m wondering how bad a thing that would be; he’s fighting with kellen winslow in the press, that just wreaks of desperation/insecurity to me; this year, THE year for this team, we’ve fallen flat on our faces, which goes all the way up the ladder; his decision to go into the season w/ the LB corp and defensive backfield an absolute shambles.

so, when i’m thinking about savage, he’s supposed to be a draftnik…has he been that great? certainly not up to his billing, in my estimation. free agency? i’d argue that he’s not outperformed other gm’s if they were given the sums he’s had over the past few off seasons. that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get credit, but i guess he doesn’t get extra credit.

in summary, i guess the fact that i’m on the fence means i’d be willing to see another hand at the wheel…if that hand came attached to a massive chin.