@usfbrown said:

I would still take that trade in a heartbeat.

You're getting a two first round picks, a second round pick and two fourth round picks. That's three (should-be) starters, and probably two depth players.

Unfortunately, our scouting department was shit and our GM's were equally as bad.

I know hindsight is 20/20, but we could have taken:

Cobb (No. 64) instead of Little (No. 59)

Julius Thomas (No. 129) instead of Marecic (No. 124)

and

Reilly Reiff (No. 23) instead of Weeden (No. 22)

All of those players were available right around where we made our (shitty) picks.

Evaluating a draft trade isn't all about evaluating the players drafted. The team had needs all across the board in 2011, not just at the WR position. Picking up an additional first round pick, second round pick and two fourth round picks could have gone a long way in building a solid roster.

IUnfortunately, the people in charge were shitty drafters.

(If you want to go second level, we then traded Richardson for a first round pick, which was used to trade up and grab Johnny Manziel.)

@louisville-slugger said:

If we would have taken Richard Sherman instead of Owen marecic, this wouldnt even be a discussion.

Bottom line is we squandered those picks and the trade was good one for us. Julio would have been a bust if he came here given our QB situation.

haslam didn't make the same mistake as some of the lerners and when smelled shit, flushed the toilet. that writing was on the wall as well before if even got a chance to rise from the murky depths of disparity.

this is totally different. a GM brought up from the scouting ranks who was brought up from the player ranks (ozzie newsome anyone minus the scouting attribute?). a HC who was brought in from great defensive teams. both playing defense? hard hitting smash mouth football? now they're calling the shots?

sign me up!

@calfoxwc said:

"Ignoring the past" doesn't lend to us repeating mistakes for the Browns.

we aren't in charge of nothin.

Farmer, Pettine and co. don't operate on ignorant levels and they don't make

stupid decisions.

You can read up on every draft pick, and see the difference.

I mean, what next? "Sure, Farmer and Pettine and co won a superbowl, but look at

all the mistakes and screwups savage and other coaches made in the past"... ???

nah. Not buyin it. The pitiful past has nothing to do w

ith Farmer and Pettine and co. Let it go, imho.

Its been let go. Just an observation. I'm not ready to crown the new regime as gods gift to football. We go through this every year. Every year the new regime is the one that will change everything.

I do have more faith in this crew in charge than many in the past. But as I said before, like analyzing the draft, you can't really see how well it was until years afterwards. Its not bitching or complaining. Just an observation / different topic that I didn't see come up.

we aren't in charge of nothin.

Farmer, Pettine and co. don't operate on ignorant levels and they don't make

stupid decisions.

You can read up on every draft pick, and see the difference.

I mean, what next? "Sure, Farmer and Pettine and co won a superbowl, but look at

all the mistakes and screwups savage and other coaches made in the past"... ???

nah. Not buyin it. The pitiful past has nothing to do with Farmer and Pettine and co. Let it go, imho.

Rehashing past failures does not diminish my optimism. If anything, doing so reinforces it.

Ditto when it comes to reliving the "good old days".

@cambridgeho said:

I agree it's time to look forward- but let's not forget "In Savage we Trust" either. Yeah- he brought us Joe Thomas, but he also brought Brady Quinn and a bunch of other stiffs along for the ride.

Just sayin' yes- it looks like Farmer & Pettine know what they're doing- but let's not be too hasty to say that's the case for sure. (Ah, the eternal optimism of Browns fans) We won't know for sure until several years have passed, just like the Julio Jones draft trade.

Exact same reason I'm taking a wait & see attitude on Manziel.

I thought now was a good time to review the trade because you can't review it until time passes.

To all those bitching about the post... Fuck off and make another Manziel thread.

seriously.

We now have a 5 star GM, and a coaching staff that is the same.

This board isn't a time change thing. "Spring forward, Fall back" is time change.

Talking about our current Browns should be about moving forward. And that is

what the Browns are doing, bigtime. They know what pieces to the puzzle they need,

and if the pieces don't fit, they make a change.

But not a time change. I do NOT CARE about what the lizard-lipped, tuna-headed, kumquat-brained ratbirds, squeelers,

or boondoggles did, or do. I do NOT CARE about what all the fools did when they ran the Browns before.

Farmer and Pettine are very well respected across the NFL.They are nobody's fools. It shows in their veteran FA signings,

it shows in their moves in the draft, and it shows in how they are finally rebuilding this team to win. It shows in

their sense of humor, and their intelligent comments to the media.

They, apparently for the first time in recent Browns history, have a consistent, very, very, very smart philosophy about how to

build a winner, and they know the moves they need to make. I think if I were going to get a "Bighead" mural

for our computer room wall, it would be Farmer.

Maybe we need ONE, "poor, poor pitiful past" thread, and we can all get it out of our psyches.

And, so, lamenting the history of losers who ran the Browns before is (***CRAP***)². (that's my contribution to lightening up on all the foul language on the board).

Further, I apologize to anyone who is offended, or feigns offense, by this post, but I had to get it out of the way,

because I have 2 or 3 hrs of rototilling the garden to do. It ordinarily wouldn't take so long, but we have permanent

walkways created between the planting rows now. And that's the way it is, here on the Brownsboard, in upbeat Calfoxland.

@louisville-slugger said:

To be fair I didn't dislike the Marecic pick at the time. The guy was a Swiss Army knife player who played offense and defense in college. He looked like he had potential to be a solid ultility player but of course it didn't turn out that way.

@utzie said:

That's been the Browns #1 problem- horrible drafting in general since 1999.

@louisville-slugger said:

If we would have taken Richard Sherman instead of Owen marecic, this wouldnt even be a discussion.

Bottom line is we squandered those picks and the trade was good one for us. Julio would have been a bust if he came here given our QB situation.

That was one of the monumental whiffs. Spurgon Wynn or Tom Brady?

@poeticg said:

I would also add that Richardson was traded for a first rounder that was used in conjunction with a third rounder to move up from #26(from INDY for Richardson) to acquire Mr. Johnny Football. So, all in all this ATL trade hasn't played itself out yet. If MANZIEL turns out to be the Franchise QB that we've been looking for over the course of over a decade then I'd say do it again.

Amazing how a trade can still have an impact 3 years later

@usfbrown said:

We now only have 1 player left on our roster from the 2011 Falcons trade.

In the 2011 Draft we traded away the #6 pick to the Falcons for three 2011 selections: the Falcons’ first-round pick (No. 27), the Falcons’ second-round pick (No. 59) and the Falcons’ fourth-round pick (No. 124). We also received the Falcons’ No. 1 pick in 2012 (No. 22) and their No. 4 pick in 2012 (No. 118).

The Browns moved up to No. 21 in the 2011 draft to take Taylor.

With the next pick from the Falcons (No. 59), the Browns took Little.

The final Atlanta pick of 2011 (No. 124) was used on fullback Owen Marecic.

Brandon Weeden was selected with the Falcon's 2012 first draft pick (No. 22).

The Falcons’ fourth-rounder (No. 118) was used in conjunction to trade up to get Richardson (No. 3).

Julio Jones or Taylor, Little, Marecic, Weeden, and Richardson.

In retrospect, we got FLEECED!!! In the end, it's what the Browns have done best for years, draft horribly. I still believe you take the stock pile of picks especially if you're a team that needs some rebuilding. But in this case, we lost out big time.

I would also add that Richardson was traded for a first rounder that was used in conjunction with a third rounder to move up from #26(from INDY for Richardson) to acquire Mr. Johnny Football. So, all in all this ATL trade hasn't played itself out yet. If MANZIEL turns out to be the Franchise QB that we've been looking for over the course of over a decade then I'd say do it again.

I mean it's not like you or I can change anything, so why moan about a bad deal like a little bitch?

Bottom line is we squandered those picks and the trade was good one for us. Julio would have been a bust if he came here given our QB situation.

@miktoxic said:

Sorry, pretty good as in better then good, but not yet great. I was kinda going off of the Rubin stats of 9.0 sacks, 227 total tackles, 4 passes defended, 1 interception, 3 forced fumbles, and 1 fumble recovery in 5 years as a 6th round Nose tackle. Rubin has been pretty good also. I do hope we resign Taylor though. I watched him last training camp in Berea and he was fun to watch, funny guy.

@miktoxic said:

He may be as good at what he does as Jones is at what he does.

@cambridgeho said:

pretty good? the guy is the foundation of our DLine.

@usfbrown said:

someone has always got to bring up the woulda shoulda coulda cards.

time to move on.

@cambridgeho said:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/13982/julio-jones

Honestly, it's not as one sided as you would think. Yes, he has a lot of TD's and has been more productive than any WR the Browns have had in that time (except Gordon's season last year, obviously), but when you look at the Falcons' offense of having Matt Ryan throwing the ball to Julio, Roddy and Tony G, you have to think that Julio got a lot better looks than he would have if he was here.