Highlights of C Alex Mack, No. 21 Overall Pick for the Cleveland Browns

by Chris Pokorny on Apr 27, 2009 12:31 PM EDT in General News Comment 20 comments

(Flash back to 2003)

2003: "With the 21st pick in the 2003 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns select center Jeff Faine, Notre Dame."

(Flash forward to 2009)

2009: "With the 21st pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns select center Alex Mack, California."

There's something about taking a center with pick No. 21 I suppose. What's clear right off the bat is that it appears the Browns have acquired a "solid" center who can start for us over the next 10 years, according to Peter King. Some fans may have been disgusted with the selection because they were hooked on wanting a defensive player -- either LB Aaron Curry, DT B.J. Raji, or LB Rey Maualuga. Instead, we took a center.

The pick was one that I, along with many other fans, hoped the Browns would make with the 36th overall pick in the draft. A few days before the draft, I stated that there was no way he would be there at that point, and that I would consider trading up into the first round to acquire him. Eric Mangini and George Kokinis went about it in a different way, but they inevitably got him without reaching too much.

PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Here are some highlights of Alex Mack's press conference after joining the Browns (photo credit on right to Cleveland Plain Dealer):

(On what his visit with the Browns was like and how it differed from other teams) - "They took me out at the last minute. We had not planned originally to come out all this way and at the last minute they wanted to fly me out. It was really exciting because it means they really liked and showed some interest and they wanted to meet me. I was excited to come out here and meet one last team. They put me through a lot of meetings, had me meet a lot of people and coach (George) Warhop even had an o-line test for me after he tried to teach me some stuff. They were definitely really interested to see how well I actually learned the material."

(On how having Hank Fraley on the roster impacts where he will play on field) - "I plan to be the best player possible. If that means being a guard or being a center, I think I’m open for either spot. I think him being in the league for a long time is a benefit to me because he has a lot of experience. I think everyone on this team probably wants to win games and I’m excited to do everything I can to help that happen. If I’m one of the best five linemen, I hope to be playing alongside him."

(On possibly facing Pittsburgh’s DT Casey Hampton) - "It’s going to be a lot of work and I know that and I’m excited for the challenge."

(On maintaining a high academic standard at Cal) - "It took some work. It was a matter of just having some discipline. You would be tired after practice and instead of sitting on the couch and watching T.V., you had to force yourself to get in front of the books. It was just a matter of knowing how to manage your time and how to get the work done that you needed to do. If you had a paper due, you had to be smart enough to either have it a couple days ahead of time or just stay up late."

(On whether he prefers run blocking or pass blocking) - "I believe I can get better at both. I pride myself at being an aggressive run blocker. I think that’s a fun thing to do when you get to run the ball and really get to impose your will on a defense. Pass blocking is fun because you just stop the guy and all of a sudden 30 yards of the field is gone and you get to jog down there and you’ve done your good work. Running the ball is something that is blue-collar and dirty and it’s fun to do as an offensive line. It’s also a lot of work."

See Alex Mack's full press conference transcript here

SCOUTING REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

Alex Mack - Center, California
6'4", 316 lbs, Age: 23

Strengths: He definitely has the intellect, on and off the field as he had a college GPA of 3.61 in legal studies. This includes him winning the Draddy Trophy in 2008, otherwise known as the "Academic Heisman". His aggressiveness and physicality present him with a nice "killer instinct". The experience is there as well, after he started the past four years at California.

Weaknesses: The biggest issue seems to be that he is overaggressive at times. He didn't move very well in space during college, but that's not a major issue for a center, right?

In March, Buffalo Rumblings interviewed California Golden Blogs on Mack. You can read the full interview here, but I decided to pluck one question from it:

How often has he [Mack] faced a 3-4 defense, and how has he held up vs BIG DTs?

Outside of practice (when Cal was running 3-4), not much. The Pac-10 defenses generally run 4-3 sets, so Mack is usually facing down a defensive tackle. That being said, Mack anchored an offensive line that gave up the least number of sacks in college football in 2007, and he did a fairly good job on a 2008 team with a mediocre passing attack and with three starting offensive linemen who went down to injury through the season.

We ran so many plays right up the gut this season that went for 10-30 yards mainly because Mack was our anchor on the O-Line and he could break out our running backs, Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen, to daylight.

California Golden Blogs also did a nice retrospective piece on Alex Mack. Of one of the most memorable moments? See the picture above and to the right.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

Next up, here are some video highlights of our new beloved center:

2007 Highlights

2008 Highlights

YOUR TURN FOR QUESTIONS

California Golden Blogs has offered to answer questions about C Alex Mack for us. I would like you guys to submit one-two questions each as a reply to this post, and I'll choose a few of them to send over.

CONCLUSION

I think after fans get over the disappointment of missing out on an early linebacker, they'll appreciate this pick. C Hank Fraley's production was down all of last season, to the point where I believe he's ready to be downgraded to a backup. With tough nose tackles facing us several times a year in the AFC North, we needed new blood in there to ensure QB Brady Quinn isn't on his back every other play.

Another underrated fact: it's a good thing the Pittsburgh Steelers weren't able to get their hands on Mack, as many people projected they would. One final note to consider: although it would've been nice to get Mack a little later, the Buffalo Bills took a center, Eric Wood, with the 28th overall pick. From that perspective, we didn't reach too much.

GRADE OF PICK ITSELF: A

GRADE OF PICK AT NO. 21: A-

Poll

Do you approve of the selection of C Alex Mack at No. 21 overall?

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No

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Comments

Love those video packages. Mack finished almost every play in each of those videos with a pancake or a driving his man off the screen. Really finished plays well. I’m loving this draft more and more.

by Ryan Kelsey on Apr 27, 2009 2:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

My questions would be;

1. Since Mack was center, I assume handled all of the line calls, and how would you rate him at it? Were the Bears good at picking up blitzes? Did certain teams/defenses give the Cal lines problems?

2. What was the most memorable Mack play (If there is such a thing as a memorable play as a center)?

3. Mack supposedly gets to aggresive at times, did he draw a lot of penalties, like personal fouls etc.?

by Bernie19Kosar on Apr 27, 2009 2:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

He only had like 1 penalty all year i think

by BradyQuinnisBeast on Apr 27, 2009 8:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Did you see the videos? He looks like personal fouls could be a slight issue. But only if a ref gets over-antsy.

by Ryan Kelsey on Apr 27, 2009 10:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I like the kid more after reading what he said. He seems like he’d be a great teammate, he appears ready to learn, and realizes that he has room for improvement. He also has demonstrated a great amount of self-discipline in his academics which will serve him well in his new environment.

Pronk Needs You

by woodsmeister on Apr 27, 2009 2:28 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Watching those highlights has me really excited for this pick. I think it was highlight #3 where Mack was bulldozing a DT and 2 LBs simultaneously. Really excited for this guy.

by joeee on Apr 27, 2009 2:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

was that the tennessee game highlight? that was absurd.

by DontCallMeJoey on Apr 27, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, that’s the one. This is a great highlight tape.

by joeee on Apr 27, 2009 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t know if this has been mentioned on here already, but Mack has an Ohio connection. His father went to Baldwin-Wallace (in Berea, of course) and his grandparents have a summer home in Lakeside, near Marblehead, where he visited often as a kid. So he’s familiar with Cleveland and northern Ohio and seemed excited about coming here, which is always good.

by Buckeye Brad on Apr 27, 2009 5:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree Alex Mack is a quality C, but

who is our playmaker on offense again?

was the gaping hole at C the reason we were near bottom in the offensive categories last year? Have you heard what the analysts are saying about us becoming the team that traded away Mark Sanchez?

Maybe I’m just speaking out of frustration from our last, say 10 first round draft experiences (with the KW and JT exceptions)

No offense to AM… welcome to the Browns… get to work… we’ll need you… we believe in you, but we left several playmakers on the board… glad to see Davis picked up in the late rounds

by Inverting_Football_Intelligence on Apr 28, 2009 1:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The gaping whole at C and also perhaps starting a non-NFL caliber player at QB for one third of the schedule.

Put some thought into your posts, instead of pure emotional pessimism.

www.lowbrowsophisticate.com

by kwoog on Apr 28, 2009 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It is pretty simple. In this division we need to control the NT. Hank Fraley couldn’t do that. He was physically overmatched at the point of attack. He could not handle Hampton and Ngata.

More teams are turning to 3-4 defenses. With Mack the Browns now have a young athletic center that can match up and give the center of our offensive line an attitude that has been missing since Steve Everett.

Now that the Browns have a center that can win some one-on-one battles, we will be able to do something with our athletic guards in Hadnot and Stienbach, hopefully getting them to the second level springing Mr James Davis for long gains.

We must control the line of scrimmage. I actually would not have minded adding more offensive lineman in the draft. The old saying goes, draft as many O-Lineman and D-Lineman as you can, then start doing it again.

I know it is not sexy, but would you rather have a great RB and no line, or a decent RB and an All-Pro line? Before you say great RB, think of Barry Sanders.

by Bernie19Kosar on Apr 28, 2009 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I love this kid. Just about everything you look for in a lineman. Big, physical, nasty, plays with that mean streak, mobile, a “natural knee bender”…

He is going to need some work on his technique, but he has a lot of things you can’t teach.

My only question for the Cal people would be about his ability at the second level: highlights aside, how does he look when he is asked to move downfield on to a linebacker or safety? Do you remember any plays where he was 20+ yards downfield looking for someone to block? Do you ever remember him getting embarrassed by a smaller, quicker player?

by rufio on Apr 28, 2009 2:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Last call for questions guys…I’m going to try to submit a list in the next day or so.

Dawgs By Nature - Covering the Cleveland Browns on SB Nation.

by Chris Pokorny on Apr 28, 2009 2:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I’d like to hear their response to this not-so-glowing analysis of Mack’s technique from Mike Tanier at FootballOutsiders:

Watch a Cal game, and you’ll see Mack flop to the ground at least half a dozen times. Sometimes he’s on top of a defender (not a bad thing), but often he’s lying on the backside of a play, scrambling to get back on his feet. The problem was far worse in 2007 than it was last year, but it’s still a problem: you can’t simultaneously block a linebacker and sunbathe.

Mack’s problem is his technique: He’s a lunger. He bends his waist, leans forward, and tries to throw his body at defenders. That’s no way to block: Lungers lose balance easily, and good defenders simply toss them to the turf. Mack improved his technique in 2008, but old habits die hard, particularly late in the game. When players tire, their fundamentals slip, and many of Mack’s belly-flops occurred late in Oregon (rolub: sic, Cal?) games.

You know Selig? Ombudsman.

by rolub on Apr 29, 2009 2:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i’m going to choose to pretend that i never read this.

good day.

by DontCallMeJoey on Apr 29, 2009 3:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think they are wrong about the waist-bender part, so really all that needs to be done to fix Mack’s technique is to work on him taking a shorter first step and punching with his hands more. They are correct that he is overagressive at times and on the ground far too often.

Still, if you watch one of the highlights you can actually see Mack block a LB while he is on his knees and falling down, creating a seam for the RB who makes a big gain (camera is looking straight at Mack). So they are wrong about not being able to subathe and block a LB.

We can coach up his technique, its a lot harder to coach up his size, movement skills, football intelligence, motivation, nastiness, or toughness.

by rufio on Apr 30, 2009 12:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Still, if you watch one of the highlights you can actually see Mack block a LB while he is on his knees and falling down, creating a seam for the RB who makes a big gain (camera is looking straight at Mack). So they are wrong about not being able to subathe and block a LB.

Of course, a highlight package prepared by Cal Bears fans is not going to include images of him missing blocks. It’s not a film reel, it’s a highlight reel.

Two other points: one highlight does not mean he can do it on a consistent basis, and more often than not, if a guy’s on the ground and successfully “blocks” a LB, odds are a holding or tripping penalty is going to be called on the sunbather.

You know Selig? Ombudsman.

by rolub on Apr 30, 2009 2:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Chris, can we have threads like this for some of our other players

Eric Berry Bandwagon

by BradyQuinnisBeast on Apr 29, 2009 5:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yep, I’m aiming to churn out a new player highlight thingy about every two days or so (just released Robiskie a little bit ago). I know some bloggers like to do them almost all at once, but I like to feel like adequate time has been dedicated to a certain topic before moving on.

Dawgs By Nature - Covering the Cleveland Browns on SB Nation.

by Chris Pokorny on Apr 30, 2009 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs