Overshadowing the Trent Richardson pick was the itchy trigger finger pick of Brandon Weeden, the QB out of Oklahoma State. Now if the 28year old Weeden plays 10 years and the Browns win and possibly even make a Super Bowl it does not matter where he was drafted. However, that is a tall order, which is accelerated due to his age.
What happens when Weeden has a couple bad games and the fans blame him for the losses? Do the Browns bench him and go back to McCoy? Will McCoy still be here? If not, is there a back up plan or is it “Weeden or bust” and start over again next year with yet another quarterback?
After that being said, I would give the Browns a low B grade with a high ceiling. The Browns did add depth in their front seven of the defense with two LB’s and two DL’s along with a DB, TE, and a 170-pound WR with questionable hands, but blazing speed. Unfortunately for the Browns their fate does not simply depend on their draft. Three of the top five drafts for the entire 2012 draft came from within the AFC North, the Division the Browns compete in.
Coming in at number 5 are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs went defense with four of their first five picks highlighted by their first pick Mark Barron at Safety from Bama and the LB out of Nebraska, Lavonte David. The 2nd round choice of RB Doug Martin from Boise State fills the need for an all-purpose back.
The 4th best draft is not too much of a shock being the Baltimore Ravens led by Ozzie Newsome have consistently put winning teams on the field since Ozzie’s first draft when he took Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis, two future Hall of Famers. With no first round pick the Ravens still got great value in round two by drafting Alabama LB Courtney Upshaw and Iowa State Tackle, Kelechi Osemele.
After years of very bad drafts the Bengals have had two very good drafts. Last season the Bengals had a lot of success drafting AJ Green and QB Andy Dalton. They drafted Dre Kirkpatrick a cornerback from Alabama with excellent ball skills and a guard from the University of Wisconsin (Which produces more offensive lineman to the NFL than Penn State produces Linebackers), Kevin Zeitler. Drafting Devon Still from Penn State made this draft. The massive Defensive tackle out of Penn State, who was the Big Ten defensive player of the year in 2011, had 1st round potential but the Bengals got him in round 2 (53 overall).
I love this draft! The Patriots do not need much offense, but they cant keep winning games 35-31. They needed defense so they used their first six picks on defense. Now that makes sense to me, you need defense so you draft a lot of it. I don’t think Belichick will have any problem plugging in Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower or Syracuse DE Chandler Jones to his defense. In all, the Pats took three defensive backs, who were absolutely needed.
If we had theme music in the background while discussing this draft I would use Darth Vader’s them from Star Wars to introduce this next team’s draft. Now this has everything to do with my bias towards the Browns, but being the professional blogger I am, I must put my bias to the side and give the number one slot to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pitt chose the best guard in the draft at number 24 in David Decastro and OSU lineman Mike Adams at number 56 who was projected to go in round one just weeks earlier, but was downgraded due to failing a drug test. The Steelers will have a much-improved offensive line to protect their franchise QB Ben Roethlisberger who has been hit way too much over the last couple years. Casey Hampton is getting up there in years as the Steelers 3-4 defensive tackle so they draft 365-pound Alameda Ta’amu out of the University of Washington. Running back Chris Rainey out Florida will be a great value pick at number 159, if he can live up to the potential he had coming out of High school.
Arnie Hamilton
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