The rumor mill . I guess the same logic could apply to any number of players. That might make a good trade . Unfortunately fiction finds its way into Newsprint and other forms of media reporting in inappropriate ways . Unless The browns are in fact testing the market and the source is reliable .

But there is no way for the reader to know if the story is a creation of the writer .

The 2002 case of the three writers in Florida suing the big 6 media outlets . The case went to the supreme court and the court plainly said to the public , They don't have to tell the truth . Hence the 6 o clock news 1 hour of truthful media was eliminated.

The truth is SB nation has no obligation to tell the truth . The truth being subjective . (The crocodile and the child paradox).

Although The rumor mill does give us some entertainment and a few interesting scenario's .

I always liked the term skin in the Game , The congress and most Government workers , teachers , railroad workers don't pay into SSI so they have no skin in the Game . Witch is hypocritical .Give them the same healthcare and retirement as the nation and see if the attitude changes.

This is like saying they should be taxed 1 1/2 more on there retirement and that goes to SSI . Don't think they would go for that .

On the official browns page they have indicated a Number of fullbacks and have brought in a few for a better look . We can probably surmise that the Browns are interested in up grading the fullback position .

Zack boren would be nice he's nothing special except he is a pure fullback .

Star Lotulelei was the first player to catch my eye early in the year .

Now that QB has been settled Gino Smith can be passed on that relieves me .

Im kind of partial to Wisconsin O line men Travis Frederick C/OG but he falls into a slot witch we would have to trade of move up or down to get him .

My thoughts with C/OG is Mack has never been able to pull vary well His size has increased and Id like to see him move around somewhat. just for Power and knowledge of the game . We see this on other teams with veterans and maybe they can work some plays into the line witch takes advantage of Mack's talents.Plus a quality back up Center / OG Like Fredrick can never hurt your team .

After looking over many posts in San Francisco , I get a better view of Colt in the eye's of the NFL nation . Most 49r Fans like this trade . Most Cleveland fan are mixed . The first thing you notice about Colt is his obvious youth. He looks like a 19 year old Kid still .

This typifies most comments made on the 49rs Pages.

49rrr fan

I agree with everyone else, this is a great trade! Colt McCoy is exactly what you want in a backup quarterback. Smart, tough, reliable. Good player, great teammate. Young, but experienced. Cheap contract. Gave up basically nothing for him. I’ve liked him since his college days and he never had much of a chance in Cleveland.

He’s no superstar, but he’s probably one of the best 40 or so quarterbacks in the league. Definitely solid enough to be Kaep’s backup. I like Tolzien too, but I have a lot more confidence in McCoy should Kaep go down with an injury.

So, everybody gets what they want and Hopefully the browns can take that pick and move up one more time . If they do that we all can forget Colt and Move on .

My worst fear is one half way there , Colt Becomes the Next Joe Montana . The only way we win is if colt becomes the next Brady quinn . If he has one good season somewhere ; anywhere he will have a lifetime Job at ESPN and a admit one pass to the H O F . Media Loves to say "I told you so Cleveland .

If we are going offence in the draft . The idea of trading back the 6th along with moving up the 68 pick ,works for me . Two wr are at the low 1st and mid to high second . Along with a huge amount of Wrs after the 1st .

How far would the Browns be willing to trade down . I'm thinking no more then 5 spots . At the other end the 68th should be moved up to mid Thirties .

Off coarse a trade would change that , added value .

Here's a chart This scenario was common in 2009 and 2010. It happened 30 times in the first four rounds. A team was willing to move down 9 slots on average. The ‘relative value’ below is the net gain in the order of all compensatory picks. So for example, New England moved back 2 places in round 1 in 2010 and gained an additional pick that was 143 slots from the end of the draft. If a team traded 2 picks for 2 picks, then I subtracted all the relative orders to get a net ‘relative value’ for the trade:

Value

per slot moved back Change in draft order Relative value Team moving down

72 -2 143 CHI

72 -2 143 NE

35 -3 106 NE

34 -3 103 OAK

33 -2 66 OAK

33 -4 131 PHI

33 -2 65 CLE

31 -3 94 NE

27 -7 189 OAK

19 -12 232 PHI

19 -12 224 SF

19 -4 74 MIN

18 -5 91 MIA

17 -15 262 NE

17 -12 204 CLE

15 -6 92 PHI

15 -11 167 NE

15 -11 163 HOU

13 -11 141 DET

13 -18 228 BAL

12 -9 112 HOU

11 -7 77 CAL

10 -3 29 NE

9 -15 134 PHI

8 -19 151 CHI

8 -7 55 AZ

6 -24 146 DAL

5 -12 58 CAR

4 -14 57 BAL

3 -15 48 PIT

The value also in not reflective of of the actual spot . We in Cleveland know the #1 spot 2 and 3 are risky and team needs must be considered .

Travis Frederick and a healthy Montee ball. That's like one really big guy . Frederick and ball are road graders . Add a healthy T rich and its a wonderful Dream .

@the-gipper said:

the offense, nor the QB, by no means was the sole culprit in all those losses.

I mean, when we all assessed the Browns needs in the off season didn't we conclude that the following were our primary areas of need:

DE

OLB

FS

CB

OG

These are all primarily defensive needs.[/b]

If we pickup Grimmes all the D needs have been addressed . That OG position going to be hard to fill in the draft seeing that Maybe two OL players will be gone by The six pick . We haven't even began to touch the O needs . All in All I think Jimmy has a game plan .We can see His smiles in his recent article . He thinks we have done well . My thoughts on the Defense being addressed in FA is that the draft going to surprise a lot of people with the offences needs . Of coarse the Browns are not going to get all the best talent in FA but , They did pretty good.

That old Joke about the Pee wee coach only addressing the Defense rings true here . Losing 6 to 3 is no victory . There is still a lot of work to do , and this is going to be a long summer with lots of moves still to be made .

Its should be interesting what the browns have on there minds for Barnes . As mentioned previously Barnes has been taking snaps at both the free safety and outside cornerback positions . I would think his development as a FS could work well in the new scheme .

This is the link to the question rotowold was asking they answered there own question . It pretty much says the browns scored third in the FA race .

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/42830/309/free-agency-winners

At that time ? How these things work out on the field , I don't know . I'm just peachy happy that the Browns are In the game and not being used as the ball .

@the-gipper said:

OK, interesting. Not really on topic, but decent info.

But, that still begs the question: How do you think the Browns have done so far in FA vis a vis their AFCN rivals?

I think you seem to be implying that they have aced this thing so far, comparatively. Fair to say?

I shirked the question on The comparative sorry , I just think We can't measure that until we see Weedens performance in preseason . I hate to say this but, Everything is in Weedens hands this year . The truth is if Weeden does bad , The moves look like garbage , If Weeden does good then Banner looks like a genius .I can say "with honesty" That The moves in Free agency are welcome simply because Free agency is fresh and new to Cleveland .

Dysert scored huge at the combine . Many sports writers moved his stock up Maybe as far as the third round . As for the rest its a toss up , Landry Jones was the next guy on my list . Landry Jones reminds my of Flacco as Dysert does to Ben Ratlistbluger (Just can't pronouns that) The problem is we have to use pick 68 with care .Vary doubt full we would pass on a FS or corner .

Rotoworld has the browns at 21 .

The Browns are a quarterback away from challenging for a top 12 or 15 starting lineup. Fortunately, there is reason to think Weeden stands a chance of improving under new coach Rob Chudzinski, who has a history of maximizing his quarterback's strengths. With Richardson running behind one of the NFL's top young lines, the Browns will play power-ball offense and take shots off play action to Gordon. Tight end may be a position Cleveland seeks to upgrade in April's draft. Ex-basketball player Cameron is long on athleticism, but must be pushed.

Defensive Overview: The Browns have the best young defensive front seven no one is talking about. Criminally underrated Bryant will be Ray Horton's new Calais Campbell at 6-foot-6, 300 with ability to both stop the run and collapse the pocket. Rubin and Taylor each weigh 330-plus and clog running lanes. Rubin is light on his feet and active to the ball. Kruger and Sheard are high-impact bookend pass rushers. Free safety and right corner still need to be addressed. Unfortunately, new GM Mike Lombardi only has six selections in the draft and will pick just twice in the top 100.

Free safety and right corner still a need = Top Two picks in draft . Good offseason A+ That leaves the Browns in the hands of Weeden .

We can see players like Haden and Thomas get overvalued but, There effect on the teams overall strength can't be measured .Most writers don't watch games like Cleveland VS KC . They can not see Haden and Thomas As positive influences on Guys like Ward and Mack .

If we look at two players .

1. Paul Kruger, Outside Linebacker

The contract year of Kruger saw him take his game to another level, consistently producing pressure, especially from the Ravens’ nickel packages. He finished 2012 with the highest Pass Rushing Productivity score of all 3-4 outside linebackers after registering 55 quarterback disruptions on 359 pass rushing snaps.

2012 Cap Hit: $870k

2012 Performance Based Value: $7.5m

Value Differential: +$6.6m

4. Desmond Bryant, DT – Cap: $1.9m, PBV: $6.8m, Value Differential: +$4.9m

We get a good idea or measurable pattern . The way Jimmy H may think . A strategic advantage can be had next year if the pattern continues .

With the new cap in place Analytics Has become the new text mining . Meaningful patterns of data. This is really important when looking at guys like T.J. Ward, Safety The first 4 games 2012, Without Haden he Looked bad . Then ended as third most valuable player on the team . I seen this article a few weeks back . It cleared up some argument we where having on a Yahoo board . Nice find .

Off coarse It take some critical thinking And leaps of Logic have to be applied .

As we get closer to the draft , I think Colts days are Numbered with the pick of Zak dysert . If he's still around The second high score at the combine QBs and the obvious similarities to the guy in stinking City south east from here . Zak has all the skills and little downside . Not from a big time school but, He the guy that going to stick out as a sleeper .

@miktoxic said:

yes.

and i put the blame squarely on that fat ass holmgren. he was still trying to catch lightning in a bottle like he did with favre. meanwhile he never drafted favre. he just took a chance on him and he actually paid off unlike every other QB he touched.

Russel Wilson and the sea-hawks are sitting at #1 right now , In two moves the sea hawks have instant NFL recognition witch works out to be Big $ for the team in assorted revenues .I have to wonder witch player we could have had in Weedens spot and if that would have worked out to be Wilson to the Browns on the next pick or two . Hind sight a beautiful thing !

Mike has gotten credit for a lot of moves he didn't make from San fran to green bay . I never thought Mike could miss on a QB .Sometime I think Mike was Just here to make the team salable .

Pre draft power rankings came out ESPN has The browns moving Down one spot .

This is what they said :The Browns have spent a lot on defense by adding Paul Kruger and Desmond Bryant. Not sure how that improves the 24th-ranked scoring offense. (Hensley)

This is probably not an indictment of the Defense . More so it may be an objective look at the Offence .

The chiefs moved up and this is what was said ;

New coach. New general manager. New quarterback. New hope. That all should be worth six more wins. (Fox)

The Sea hawks ,Took #1 spot with a bold move to get Percy Harvin receiving passes from .(Russel Wilson)

The Obvious is the football community will have little respect for the Browns if The Offence is not addressed . Joe Thomas said this week respect was an issue,

Without addressing the WR spot ,I think they are right . A more verbal Joe Thomas would help things along a little but this may also indicate Joe May be looking down the road to greener pasture . We in Cleveland may like the receivers we have but It doesn't mean NFL community respects them with good reason ' They have accomplish nothing .

If the best Qbs is Weeden ,I think most people would still be happy with that but I really believe all the Colt McCoy fans want is to see a real competition . Pre season Brandon starts Two quarters Colt Starts Two quarters . Colt was a little immature but This is a different Team and Colts grown .

Also the Obvious , The elephant in the room is during the H&H regime we did not get a clear cut franchise QB .This leaves us still talking QB controversy.

Reminded me of someone , the oldest player to record a sack at 40 years, 282 days. Matthews.