@flugel said:

LOL. I, at least, like his understanding of how important the trenches are and his knowledge of experience. That said, my sniffer recognizes the back door opportunity to alley-oop homer hero Joey Bosa right before the 200th episode. In this thread, he reminds me of one of those Cowboys fans back in the day when he brought up our future is fine with Austin Davis and a 35 year old QB. It takes Austin Davis 3 hours to watch 60 Minutes because he's one of those slow processors that renders his bazooka completely useless.

It feels like yesterday when the Cowboys had THE Steve Walsh that had so many of their fans prematurely crying about what a horrible draft pick Troy Aikman was when their future was all set w/ Walsh. That poor fan base had to watch an inexperienced rookie QB go 0-11 while receiving 2 different concussions from Buddy's Bounty boys. All that because JJ couldn't see or understand they had STEVE WALSH man! Sound like a commercial Dennis Hopper should have done?

Apparently Jimmy Johnson was out of his mind to think he could also add a 270 lb Center like Mark Stepnoski (rd 3) the same draft as Aikman, Erik Williams in 91 (rd 3), Ray Allen in 94 (rd 2) to join the following guys already there: LT Mark Tuinei (undrafted & not quite Joe Thomas), Nate Newton (undrafted), Kevin Gogan, Tom Rafferty, and Crawford Kerr. Just out of curiosity, how many times did an efficient front office need to go offensive line in rd 1 before they put together one of the best offensive lines of my lifetime in 94: LT Mark Tuinei, LG Nate Newton, C Mark Stepnoski, RG Larry Allen, LT Erik Williams. Any question as to why Emmitt Smith would become an All-time Leader Rusher while Aikman's Superbowl Championship inventory would reach 3 even before 94? The key to remember, you can't get your dream line in just 1 draft or think SB Sunday following crummy football like 3-13. Today, we're the cumulative effect of 2 brain cells not on speaking terms in charge of the draft here that repeatedly didn't understand how important 2 first round draft picks were to advancing this franchise out of permanent park.

In fairness, there wasn't a Joey Bosa curing cancer, ending terrorism, and solving world hunger in between his hobby of walking on water in Ohio to save Jimmy Johnson from making the mistake of drafting a QB capable of 3 SB Championships. Also keep in mind, they must have had a Nostradamus type of vision ahead knowing they could draft a really good eventual backup to Tony Castillas and Danny Noonan named Russell Maryland with their first overall pick in 91. There IS that.

BUT, there have been many mock drafts willing to misunderstand that the prospect they want wasn't playing in a 34 D 5 technique while Cupid recruited their hearts long before Valentine's Day this Hallmark holiday season. The good news is some mock drafts have received some smelling salts and are starting to realize some teams in the top 5 don't use 4 man fronts very often at all (such as both teams Horton worked for). He's going to be asked to be Brett Keisel in THIS type of defense not to be confused with a Greg Lloyd, James Harrison, or Joey Porter. Oh wait, Keisel didn't go to Ohio State so let's just use Cameron Heyward. Good player, good draft pick but not #2 overall reach material especially considering that same franchise was able to find a long time gem like Keisel somewhere around the 6th or 7th round.

Those '90s Cowboys lines were good.

I think we have a more of a finesse line, a la the '81-90 49ers.

Bubba Paris

Keith Fahnhorst

Randy Cross

Jesse Sapolu

John Ayers

Later Steve Wallace replaced Bubba due to weight problems at LT.

The line we have is composed of technicians. I know Flip was able to get them to run with power a few games at the end, but I think that was a function of them just gelling under a yet another new system.

Good post and this is a much better board than the one I was on before. My old board was too cliquey and it just became a pissing match between posters with no moderation. Mods favorited certain posters. Maybe one day that board will be shut down.

I think we need to get QB. Although you could make an argument for Bosa at #2, sometimes the best answer is the simplest.

Get QB and we can fix the D with other studs. QB is the hardest piece, and we are in a good situation--we are BAD ENOUGH--to get an elite QB when it counts. Glad we didn't go 5-11 or 6-10 and miss out again.

I think our OL will improve with the right coaching. I even think Erving will improve.

I remember thinking Brown Sr. was a good asset to the '99 team, along with Lomas Brown (who was very good during the '90s Lions era). The Browns failed with Pyne, Rehsuck and a few others. But at the time it seemed like a good move, to bring in veterans who had known what to do to build the team up.

Will be interesting to see how Jr. improves next year--can he cut down on the fouls.

First-time member and came across this post.

I've folowed the Browns for years but never heard of the Orlando Brown story. Very interesting! He could have been seriously hurt.

@flugel said:

I don't know if anyone remembers the last time we had an offensive line that put a RB in the Pro Bowl but our 2 OTs were undrafted FAs named Orlando Brown (Zeus) and Tony (T-Bone) Jones. Orlando might have had a tendency to look like he had 2,000 lb cleats in pass pro but dum gommit he could absolutely move people out and erase them as a run blocker. At 1 time in the weight room he was loading up a barbell with 1,000 lbs getting ready to put that on his upper back for squats until Bill Belicheck shut it down. One of the best run blockers I've ever seen here if you ever want to see us running the ball down the esophagus of Philly's playoff caliber front 7 or that of Dallas back in the 1994 regular season - it was a thing of beauty.

In any event, tonight I'm watching Oklahoma play Oklahoma State and there's this gigantic dude I had to ask - who the Flock of Seagulls is this big bastard? No sooner did I learn he was Orlando Brown Jr; and I was watching a powerfully compact built Samaje Perine rushing for a 68 yard TD off the left edge Orlando Brown JR absolutely caved in like a John Deere Tractor. My football wood factor went from balsa to sequoia before I had any chance to get rational about where he could be landed and when he would be eligible for the draft. The Zeus has a Deuce? How cool is that?

Here's a link of the highlight and it gives you a nice replay: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=14245964

Brown crushes the DE so bad he knocks him right through the playside LBer.