Welcome to Volume Eight of "Late Hits", ClevelandSportsGirl's review of what went on in Browns Town last week.
My Draft Board Hurts:
To all the other Browns fans who, like me, have had a home-made draft board detailing their ideal draft scenario taped to their bedroom wall pretty much since the day the regular season ended...
Surely many of you sympathize with this realization: I should have done this in pencil.
After all the maneuvering by Holmgren and Heckert in recent weeks, my draft board has so many edits to it that it looks like an Eric Wedge lineup card.
However, other than the fact that I can no longer read about 80% of what I've written, this is a good thing. The changes that Holmgren and company have made allow us to imagine more favorable draft scenarios than we ever thought possible.
Recently we've discussed the possibility of trading up to get potential #1 overall pick Sam Bradford. But we may not need to, now that Colt McCoy is a possible part of the equation.
McCoy, whose skills suggest he would be an ideal fit for a West Coast offense, projects as an early second-round pick. This leaves the door open for the Browns to avoid having to attempt to trade up for Bradford (which would be extremely difficult to achieve anyway), and instead fill their need for a quarterback of the future by taking McCoy early in the second round.
Thus, we could trade up and get someone like safety Eric Berry, which would be much easier to do and would satisfy our pressing need to improve the secondary without having to sacrifice getting the quarterback we need.
True, this scenario would be far more difficult to create in reality on Draft Day than it is when we're speaking purely in hypotheticals, but it is most certainly possible.
Granted, no one is saying we've closed the book on the idea of trading up for Bradford, or even (the horror!) going after Tim Tebow, but it's nice to be able to realistically imagine a Draft Day outcome that for the first time in years doesn't leave me tempted to acquire a drinking problem.
The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Ridiculous Change To Overtime Rules:
Oh, be careful what you wish for...
For the 99% of us who have been clamoring for new overtime rules ever since we were old enough to understand how to complain about football, our prayers have been answered.
But it may have been better if they weren't. The new overtime rules, in a nutshell, allow the team that loses the coin toss to attempt a scoring drive if the team which wins the toss and gets possession first kicks a field goal.
At first glance, this appears to create the true sense of parity in overtime that we've all been hoping for. However, when examined more closely, it gives a glaring advantage to the team which loses the toss because while the winner of the coin flip is forced to run a drive which cannot result in sudden death, the loser of the toss gets a chance to score in a situation that will result in sudden death.
Is this still an improvement over the current format? Possibly. But the bottom line is that until the NFL goes to a timed OT format, both teams will never get a fair shake.
Thank you, Minnesota Vikings for spurring a rule change that makes things even more convoluted and probably no more fair than they used to be. I just can't help but see this as, unfortunately, more ammo in the arsenal of the Brett Favre Haters of the world.
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