Lack of Investment in WRs

[The Gipper]

I am curious as to what came first....the horse or the cart. The Browns clearly have NOT made much of an investment in the draft in WRs over the past several years. Is that because it was Farmer's philosophy to not do so....or because he knew that the Browns have always/mostly had disastrous results at drafting WRs. Here are the WRs drafted since they gook Braylon Edwards in round one in 2005:

2015 Vince Mayle 4th round

2012 Travis Benjamin 4th round

2011 Greg Little 2d round

2010 Carlton Mitchell 6th round

2009 Brian Robiskie 2d round

2009 Mohammed Massaquoi 2d round

2008 Paul Hubbard 6th round

2007 Syndric Steptoe 7th round

2006 Travis Wilson 3rd round

2005 Braylon Edwards 1st round.

Except for a little bit of quality out of Benjamin....primarily as a kick returner....this is a pile of dregs pretty much.

(one caveat: Josh Gordon....2d round pick used to take him in Supp draft)

Maybe it is no wonder that our QBs sucked swamp water with this pile of doodoo mostly to throw to. Another cart/horse situation.

(Compare the Steelers and their mid/late round draftees in the same period: Martavis Bryant, Wheaton, Emanual Sanders, Antonio Brown, Mike Wallas, Santonio Holmes...only Holmes was above the 3rd round)

[The Gipper]

In the same period the Browns drafted the following players listed as TEs....though a couple weren't really that:

Martin Rucker

Jordan Cameron

Brad Smelley

Randall Telfer

Malcom Johnson

[Mudfly]

Well...if you compare the Browns investment to the Steelers investment...then the Browns have spent more.....the Steelers, however, have had better results.....and their success may reinforce Farmers rule that high picks aren't required to secure talent at the WR position.....NE too....

Just playing devils advocate there, Gip

[The Gipper]

@mudfly said:

Well...if you compare the Browns investment to the Steelers investment...then the Browns have spent more.....the Steelers, however, have had better results.....and their success may reinforce Farmers rule that high picks aren't required to secure talent at the WR position.....NE too....

Just playing devils advocate there, Gip

Well....I am not necessarily saying that the Browns should go crazy using high picks on WRs........I am only saying that the guys they did get....whereever they took them, sucked ass.....including their #3 overall in Braylon. 1 good year, that was it.

And I am saying they need to do better.

(note....the one halfway decent guy they got just signed elsewhere)

Also...note....I did not list all of the Steelers picks...they had a few busts as well: Limas Sweed, Willie Reed, Justin Brown, Toney Clemons. But they had many more plus WRs.

[Mudfly]

I can agree with that 100%.....I think the Browns have invested plenty, but have made really poor choices....so, Id say no need to invest more, just a need to invest smarter....

In reality, all our better WR's over the past few decades have been 2nd or later picks.....and the last 1st round receiver we had that was truly good was Paul Warfield....

[TexasAg1969]

@mudfly said:

I can agree with that 100%.....I think the Browns have invested plenty, but have made really poor choices....so, Id say no need to invest more, just a need to invest smarter....

In reality, all our better WR's over the past few decades have been 2nd or later picks.....and the last 1st round receiver we had that was truly good was Paul Warfield....

Right now I'd be more than happy to "waste" our #2 overall for another Paul Warfield. But alas, his clone is not there this year. Pretty weak looking class.

[The Gipper]

@mudfly said:

I can agree with that 100%.....I think the Browns have invested plenty, but have made really poor choices....so, Id say no need to invest more, just a need to invest smarter....

In reality, all our better WR's over the past few decades have been 2nd or later picks.....and the last 1st round receiver we had that was truly good was Paul Warfield....

It goes back further than just the last few years. Here are the Browns WR draft picks in the first 3 rounds since 1960:

1962 Gary Collins 1st round

1964 Paul Warfield 1st round

1967 Eppie Barney 3rd

1971 Paul Staroba 3rd

1973 Steve Holden 1st

1976 Dave Logan 3rd

1979 Willis Adams 1st

1983 Ron Brown 2d

1984 Bruce Davis 2d

1986 Webster Slaughter 2d

1989 Lawyer Tillman 2d

1992 Patrick Rowe 2d

1994 Derrick Alexander 1st

1999 Kevin Johnson 2d

2000 Dennis Northcutt 2d

2000 JaJuan Dawson 2d

2001 Quincy Morgan 2d

2002 Andre Davis 2d.

(then see above for 2005 onward)

From what I can see....the Browns have drafted ONLY 3 decent WRs since they took Collins and Warfield in 62/64: Logan, Slaughter, and KJ (and he is borderline somewhat).

That is amazingly bad drafting of a position, fair to say? (about as bad as QB)

Oh...and FYI....there haven't been much in the way of Diamonds in the rough in lower rounds either.

The Best were Reggie Langhorne 7th round and Brian Brennan 4th round.

And maybe Michael "Hee hee" Jackson...1991 6th round.

These are the only ones that you could say were even average.

[Unsympathetic]

Gordon in the supplemental cost us a second..

[Tour2ma]

@the-gipper said:

Well....I am not necessarily saying that the Browns should go crazy using high picks on WRs........I am only saying that the guys they did get....whereever they took them, sucked ass.....including their #3 overall in Braylon. 1 good year, that was it.

SO better title would have been "Lack of Judgement..."

[calfoxwc]

It's the type of players they drafted. Momass was a long strider, and

Robieski sp? didn't love the game, he was just in it for a paycheck,

Little was a player who couldn't catch the ball and apparently wasn't good

at remembering plays...

Gordon was a giant character risk, etc etc.

The step up to the NFL means you can't just show up in games in college to keep

your scholarship anymore - it's a LOT of work and dedication.

The Browns haven't looked at dedication/love for the game, or toughness, or character...

just stupid. You can't go by combine numbers, and think you can coach up a lack of dedication/love for the game...

or intelligence. You need wr's that can quickly get off the los with burst, who love the game and are very

intelligent and tough. Robieski was...intelligent? Hue rules - he won't be picking dumb players

who don't have the skills and qualities he knows they must have.

[Babernakle]

Plan and simple whom ever the Browns are using as talent scouts need fired

[Unsympathetic]

No, they don't. You don't know that they, specifically, are not doing well at their job.

It's not the scouts' fault if the FO makes bad decisions. We aren't given copies of what the scouts provided to Farmer.

[The Gipper]

@tour2ma said:

SO better title would have been "Lack of Judgement..."

A little bit of both actually. In this decade they have only taken WRs with 2 4th rounders, a 6th and a 2d...in the regular draft.

That is not a heavy investment.....nor did they use good judgment in getting those (like I said...expecially compared to the Steelers who used 6th and 4th round picks etc. on some very good players).

[jrb12711]

The one thing I always agreed with Farmer on is that great talent can be found at the WR in the later rounds. He of course fucked that up mightily, but some of the best WR's in the league are 3rd round or later selections.

One guy if we go with Goff I'm keeping a close eye on is Kenny Lawler, his WR mate from Cal. Here's his draft bio:http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1996488/kenny-lawler

Sounds like one of the biggest knocks on him is if he can bulk up some, but he's got the size and ball skills you like to see. To be able to pair up Goff with his favorite target with a 3rd round pick could be really nice and add skill to a position of need. Really though, my hope is the first two picks be QB and DE/OLB. Outside of those picks, literally everyone can be BPA.