Sione Takitaki

The Gipper

@flyingfooldoug said:

Another local connection. Mormons started in Kirkland. Seems like a tough player and a good kid.

Mormons started in Palmyra New York actually but they did go to Kirkland later

Zombo

Taki Taki ... the guy just sounds like a hitter ... and from what I read, that is his speciality.

Two things here: 1) We're in the middle of the third round. Getting bent out of shape over a third rounder when you don't have nearly the information our front office possesses is futile. As Dorsey would say "we're looking for 'football players' and he has a top notch professional staff to scour them.

2) This is an Elliot Wolf pick, as Pluto points out. Wolf loves the guy. Did his homework. There's a reason Wolf is a highly paid NFL personnel guy and the dudes at Walter Football are writing their opinions on their laptop from a lunch diner while spilling a gyro on their fat belly.

In the third round you are looking for a plug and play guy, and we got one who becomes the fourth linebacker and special teams stud right away. Everyone complains about linebacker depth and special teams. Then we improve both corps dramatically with one pick and the complaining continues.

Guy was a bit of a trouble-maker, settled down, got married, had a fantastic season last year. He is considered a success story at BYU, and I trust Dorsey, Wolf et al to think he'll be a success story in Cleveland too.

Football player! I can see "Taki Taki" covered in mud already as he drills a rb back into the backfield on fourth and one.

Zombo

DieHardBrownsFan

@flyingfooldoug said:

Another local connection. Mormons started in Kirkland. Seems like a tough player and a good kid.

Actually New York, then they started moving west.

nickers

@diehardbrownsfan said:

Actually New York, then they started moving west.

The first Mormon church in the US is in Kirtland.. I used to live in Kirtland.. Infact.. Steve Young made a personal pilgrimage there...

DieHardBrownsFan

Yes, but the religion started in upstate New York.

upstate New York

Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity, initiated by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s.

Flugel

@unsympathetic said:

And NFL dislikes him.. And walter.. And nfldraftscout.. And PFF.. But of course - because I posted it, it must only be me who thinks it!

I get the surprise of a prospect being drafted ahead of the projections; but I don't get your level of protest over it at the 80th pick overall. Way too much Ticky-Tacky about Takitaki regardless of what Flip Flop Digest, the Weird Herald and your other football sources are telling you.

Here's the stats for the OLB we drafted:

2014 11 GP 19 TFL 4.0 TFL 3.O SACKS 0 PD 1 FF

2015 6 GP 21 TKL 7.0 TFL 3.5 SACKS 0 PD 1 FF

2017 13 GP 79 TKL 12.5 TFL 5.0 SACKS 2 PD O FF

2018 13 GP 118 TKL 9.0 TFL 3.0 SACKS 3 PD 0 FF

During the 2017 and 2018 seasons he started, he had 21.5 TFL, 8 sacks, 5 passes defensed and 197 tackles. As a part timer in his 1st 2 years, he had 11 TFL, 6.5 sacks, and 40 tackles. Looks like Takitaki can bring the sacky-sacky and tackles for losses for the right taker. Let's see what happens before we go skydiving without parachutes...

Dutch Oven

@nero said:

I can't stand when people say things like "In Dorsey I trust" or "analytics driven pick" or even "Dorsey sucks". I prefer it when we value each pick independently of the people behind it, because we don't know if it was Dorsey's, analytics, or Defensive coordinator's pick.

As of today, many people think it is a reach, and as a dummie I am, I'm not the one to judge if it is a bad pick or not (there are some UDFAs in the HOF, IIRC, would you draft them with a 3rd round pick?).

I don't blindly trust in the Front Office as they are humans, but they'll have to convince me with this one.

Excellent take.

Refusing to ever criticize Dorsey because of blind homer faith is ridiculous, no matter the fact that he's done an excellent job in Cleveland.

And the not-so-subtle "Analytics driven pick" remarks are from people who still light candles to framed pictures of Sashi Brown, and are secretly pissed that Dorsey has done well.

Dutch Oven

So when and where did Mormons find the magic underwear?

nickers

@dutch-oven said:

So when and where did Mormons find the magic underwear?

The Aliens brought it to them!...

Dutch Oven

@nickers said:

The Aliens brought it to them!...

Were they served on the magic plates that told Joseph Smith to move west?

All religions are inherently stupid, but Mormonism is even more special in this regard.

But Ron L. Hubbard told Mormons to hold his beer.

TexasAg1969

@dutch-oven said:

Were they served on the magic plates that told Joseph Smith to move west?

All religions are inherently stupid, but Mormonism is even more special in this regard.

But Ron L. Hubbard told Mormons to hold his beer.

You're going to burn in the hell inside black holes (my theory is as good as any others out there).?

PS-send me your donations to the Church of the Black Hole. I take all the money from the donations and throw it in the air. God takes what he wants and I keep the rest.?

Dutch Oven

@texasag1969 said:

You're going to burn in the hell inside black holes (my theory is as good as any others out there).?

PS-send me your donations to the Church of the Black Hole. I take all the money from the donations and throw it in the air. God takes what he wants and I keep the rest.?

I'm fully aware that if I'm wrong and there is a hell, there is a wing already built for me down there. ?

TexasAg1969

@dutch-oven said:

I'm fully aware that if I'm wrong and there is a hell, there is a wing already built for me down there. ?

Just send the money and I'll "save" you from that fate. My guarantee will beat any used car salesman's out there. I guarantee it!?

Dutch Oven

@texasag1969 said:

Just send the money and I'll "save" you from that fate. My guarantee will beat any used car salesman's out there. I guarantee it!?

You sound like the Catholic Church.

Please don't touch me in my "no-no" area, TexAg! ?

TexasAg1969

@dutch-oven said:

You sound like the Catholic Church.

Please don't touch me in my "no-no" area, TexAg! ?

My Church of the Black Hole has only beautiful priestesses ?(reason should now be obvious). Surely you will change that tune.?

nickers

@dutch-oven said:

Were they served on the magic plates that told Joseph Smith to move west?

All religions are inherently stupid, but Mormonism is even more special in this regard.

But Ron L. Hubbard told Mormons to hold his beer.

Yeah.. I find most if not all religions directly linked to creative charlatan bullshit pretty much..... I believe in a higher force if you will.. But God is no old man in the sky.... I find religion to be the imminent tool of mind control over the masses and nothing more..

tiamat63

So I haven't moved on to the Wisconsin tape yet but my early thought is this - much like the Gmen pick with Jones, I can kind of see 'why' we went in this direction. But I question the need for where the pick was made.

jcam222

@clevfan4life said:

John Dorsey just got us Greedy Williams deep in the 2nd round. Yes, John didn't exactly cast a spell on the rest of the league to make that happen...although im starting to wonder if there isn't some kind of druid shit going on here at this point...but srsly, I think we can cut Dorsey some slack. I was "highly" critical of some of the defensive cuts we made after preseason last year....and I do think they had some small part to play in why we didn't make the playoffs. That being said...…….Im over it. Look at what that fucker has built in this offseason. OBJ, Vernon, Richardson, Hunt....and ofc Baker last year which is the crucial piece, and now we get Greedy Williams to go with Denzel Ward....Minnefield/Dixon pt 2 perhaps. Srsly guys. Pinch your buttholes tight this has never happened for the Browns.

I’m a Dorsey fan for sure but let’s acknowledge he got lucky with Greedy (hopefully). A lot of other teams who wanted CB’s had him way down the board. Certainly still glad we got him at 49. As far as Takitaki he may be a great Lb talent but there is little doubt he could have been grabbed on day 3. There were at least 2 solid 1/2 round safeties left on the board. This was Wolfe’s pick and he’s out on a limb with it. That said I hope they make me look like a doubting idiot and he’s a perennial pro bowler ?

Canton Mike

This kid is a "head-scratcher" for sure but may be another Eliot Wolf find. Eliot has been acknowledged at finding sleepers in the draft. This kid turned things around in his life & has definitely trended upward recently (much like our Browns). When I looked, his 1st 2 years kept his stats down. Knock those off & he looked pretty good. WOULD he have lasted until the late rounds, or may some other war room have seen what the Browns have & decided to strike sooner?

Time will tell, but I'm just trying to keep an open mind & look at it through the Brown's eyes.

Mike

Gorka

@darren15 said:

Let's judge him after two or three seasons not 15 minutes after he was selected

But then you take away the fun of it, may as well shut down the thread. The idea is to judge him now.

Dorsey judged him now, scouts, the "experts", so why not we fans? Don't forget, each team will be graded ABCDF after the draft...another judgement call.

In two or three years is when we find out if our judgements were correct, and if the teams "grade" reflected their draft.