We can’t know at this point if Phil lost his gamble. He traded a pick for Brady Quinn. I contend that Quinn looked good in limited action (part of which he was playing with that finger injury). The hope of the future of the franchise rests on Quinn’s shoulders if you ask most of the fan base. Savage also traded picks for Shaun Rogers and Corey Williams. The coaches used Williams in a way that didn’t suit his skills (this also could have been blamed on Savage because he didn’t get the type of player that Romeo wanted), and Rogers looked like one of the best linemen in the league. I would trade a 2nd and 3rd (and more) for Rogers right now. He also traded picks for a bunch of rookies who saw little-to-no action last year because the coaches refused to play them.

Other teams get through injuries because they have depth because they have been acquiring talented players for 5+ years. Phil got just enough talent to possibly compete if everything went just right.

Because we are the proof of Murphy’s Law that is the Cleveland Browns, whatever talent we did have got stepped on and had their heel cut open, blew out their knee, achilles, quad, both knees etc. Given another year or two, who knows what Savage would have been able to put together.

Regardless, you can’t be too hard on Savage’s draft decisions. One can criticize his free agency decisions a little more.

You can’t make an argument and then say “well I just won’t bring that up, lets not talk about what I just talked about”.

I don’t begrudge him for trading a 3rd rounder for someone who he thought was a starter caliber football player. He also assumed, correctly, that some of the picks he traded away would be recouped and then some by dealing one of our two QBs, b/c there’s no way they could co-exist for a third year.

the minority position to which i was referring is the one that you refute quite well just a few posts south of here. i was saying that he’s in the minority regarding the total irrelevance of the email to the fan. think about your various lines of work…if you told a client to “f off”, wouldn’t there be consequences? and serious ones, at that?

as to the pats, i think we’re sort of saying the same thing. isn’t using someone well the same as effectively deploying them in your system? point being, the pats don’t switch to a 4-3 for certain players.

and the offensive criticism you level above is certainly warranted…but the guy working the offensive puppet strings was chud, savage’s hand-picked offensive guru.

see, now that doesn’t make any sense. if you use them incorrectly, i’d imagine you’re not doing it on purpose, which would imply you don’t know you’re incorrect and couldn’t let me know. i’ll keep my eyes peeled for you…

Did spygate look good for the Patriots? No, but Bill’s still there. Obviously Savage doesn’t have the resume of Belichick, but his crime wasn’t in the same universe as far as egregiousness either.

It takes a cohesive organization with a unifying philosophy to identify your main target in free agency and swoop in and steal them from another team that wanted them badly and offered just as much if not more money (Baxter and Bentley).

It takes a cohesive organization with a unifying philosophy to make three picks and two draft trades within 2 hours of each other on draft day to get the top two players on your board, as well as a starting CB.

It takes a cohesive organization with a unifying philosophy to trade, within the first hours of the free agency period, a 2nd rounder, a starting CB and a 3rd rounder for one of the 3 best DT in the game and another highly talented DL who was so coveted by his team that he was franchised.

The organization he created received unanimously positive buzz in getting a franchise LT and QB in the same draft. The organization he created shocked everyone and went 10-6 in 2007. The organization he created rewarded the guys that got us there afterward. The organization he created made moves to get Rogers and Williams that were widely lauded by almost every kind of source, whether media or fellow NFL personnel (Tomlin, Dungy, Millen giving us props). And then the organization he created started 2-3, losing to both eventual AFC Championship Game teams and having just beaten the unbeaten Super Bowl Champs.

At no point during these 20 months did anyone even consider questioning the “cohesion” and “unity” of the Browns. Perhaps they questioned the moves (keeping DA, thin in the secondary, giving up the 08 draft), but no one questioned the unity. What happens next? Bad DA shows up for good, inexperienced coordinators go through their first taste of adversity while being led by a complete moron, 6 weeks later we’re putting a QBs coach under center.

Savage’s org didn’t become disjointed in 6 weeks. But fairweather, scapgoat seeking fans do.