Written by Brian McPeek

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The best thing about being a pretty bad football team is draft day. Not only is it typically the best day of the year for your fans who treat it like Christmas morning, but there are so many holes on both sides of the ball that it’s almost impossible to make a mistake in picking a position to upgrade.

Oh sure, you can certainly still select the wrong guy at the right position (Gerard Warren over Richard Seymour, Courtney Brown over pretty much anyone) but you truly have the luxury of picking the very best player available regardless of what position he plays.

That’s one reason I’m looking to forward to draft day in April. The Browns are likely to have the pick of the litter at one spot or another. If DTs go off the boards quickly the Browns still have the option to take a WR like AJ Green or a linebacker like Von Miller. If those two guys are gone then the Browns are likely to get a crack at a DE like Robert Quinn, Marcell Dareus or Da’Quan Bowers.

If their first choice at DE or DT is taken then what about the prospects of pairing last season’s top pick, Joe Haden, with another lock down cornerback in Patrick Peterson and squaring away the defensive secondary for the next 8 years or so? Moving a guy like Sheldon Brown to one safety spot and having TJ Ward at the other with Peterson and Haden makes me salivate. You’d be looking at a defensive backfield that would rival the Dixon-Minniefield defensive backfield of the 80’s.

Any way you look at it, the Browns have a chance to make a considerable upgrade at a position of need (which is nearly every position) and get a guy in here who can immediately impact the team on the field.

The guy I wouldn’t mind seeing the Browns end up with is Von Miller from Texas A&M. I’ve talked about him on the boards for a few weeks and his work after the season (at Senior Bowl practice and during the game itself) has elevated Miller from a potential 10-20 pick in April to maybe a guy  who may go between 5^th and 10^th.

Miller is about 6’2” and ways about 245lbs. He’s fast, he’s fluid and he plays the inside and outside run well.  He’s also extremely effective at getting to the quarterback having led the nation in sacks as a junior. In fact, you’d probably consider Miller an ‘elite’ talent in terms of his pass rushing ability and beating tackles inside and outside with speed and strength and a variety of well developed moves. He’s also athletic enough to handle the TE in pass coverage but he’ll need work in that area simply because he spent most of his college plays dialing in on the quarterback.

Some will tell you that Miller is best suited to play rush linebacker in a 3-4 defense and that may be true. But he’s also a guy who can defend the run and the pass on early downs and then go get you a quarterback on passing downs. Miller is simply one of those elite talents you look for early in the draft. Whether or not he’s worthy of that 6^th pick when you play a 4-3 defense is something the Browns will have to decide.

One thing to pay close attention to is the method the Eagles used for years. Tom Heckert and his colleagues, despite a seemingly perennial and desperate need for a wide receiver to pair with Donovan McNabb, focused extensively on the offensive and defensive line. The Browns clearly could use an elite defensive lineman or two and it wouldn’t be surprising at all for the Browns to go that route too.

You Though it Would be Boring

Who said there would be nothing to watch in terms of the Cleveland Cavaliers?

The Cavs are giving us some compelling basketball this year and they're once again being talked about on a national level. Yes, it's because they have lost 20 games in a row, 23 games in a row on the road and they are about to break the NBA record for mst consecutive losses barring a miracle. I'd go so far as to say they'll likely shatter the consecutive losses record. And if they should happen to win shortly after setting the record for single season futility they have an outstanding chance of getting right back on the loss train and starting another 20-game losing streak.

They're that bad.

In fact, I propose that the Cleveland Cavaliers are amongst the very worst franchises in the history of sports. The fact this team has existed in one city for 40+ years is almost miraculous.

This is a sorry-assed organization with a legacy of losing. After 40 years they're playing at a .460 clip. Not bad until you remove the LeBron years from that number and then get down to .410.

They lose and they lose a lot.

What about the Daugherty/Price/Nance years, you say? That team was softer than Charmin. From '87 to '97 or so that team went to the playoffs nine times and lost in the first round seven times. They were a regular season machine but they couldn't get out of the first round and then were never getting past Michael Jordan and the Bulls.

Other than the Miracle of Richfield season and a couple of the LeBron years this team has never legitimately contended for a title. Their one Finals appearance led to a 4-0 San Antonio sweep.

They're a joke. They're also a team that had a polka for a fight song, a guy who chewed beer cans and a group of strippers known as 'The Teddy Bears" as halftime entertainment, and an owner in Ted Stepien who sanctioned (and named) those things and also sanctioned a promotion calling for softballs to be dropped from the Terminal Tower where his professional softball players would catch them. A few broken bones and lawsuits from passers by who were struck by the softballs made Stepien a joke again.

It was during the Stepien years that the NBA had to invoke a rule that still stands to day that teams could not trade 1st round draft picks in consecutive seasons. It's still known today as "The Stepien Rule". That was after the Cavs gutted their team and set themselves back for years by trading away everything not nailed down.

This is a franchise that watched one player cave to the wishes and verbal abuse of his crazy-ass wife (now ex-wife) before he went back on his word and duped a blind man who was also the owner as well as a dense GM into letting him out of his contract early before walking off to Utah for more money.

It's also the franchise who watched their salvation and savior walk away with a one hour, prime-time televised ESPN special that served as a giant kick in the balls and  "FU" to this entire region and was followed by a spurned lover-like letter to the fans from the owner of the franchise written in comic sans that night.

This is a sorry assed franchise. I won't even go further into their draft history that features talents like Chad Kinch, DaJuan Wagner, Bobby Sura, Trajan Langdon and Luke Jackson all taken in the top half of the first round.

This 20 game losing streak just isn't surprising. This just may be the sorriest team in the history of a sorry franchise.

Sadly, as the losses pile up, I'm getting more interested and find the team much more compelling. The 21st loss in a row should take place Monday night in Miami as the sadistic son-of-a-bitch who schedules games gave the Cavs back-to-backs in Orlando and against the Heat. So 21 losses in a row is a guarantee. A look ahead though shows a really scary game against Indiana at home on Wednesday. That one frightens me because the Cavs can win it. Especially now that Indiana has fired their coach and stand on wobbly legs themselves.

I'm hoping the streak doesn't end Wednesday. And if it does I'm going to be pissed not only with Indiana but with the New York Knicks who lost a double OT game to the Cavs on December 18th that stopped a Cavs 10 game losing streak. That was the last game the Cavs won. They could easily be facing the Heat with a 31-game losing streak in their pocket tomorrow night.

Nothing you can do about that win back in December now. It's water under the bridge. But there's real drama Wednesday night. It's the first 'must-see' Cavs game since the guys on the Cavs roster did everything but satisfy LeBron sexually when the Heat visited Cleveland the first time on December 2nd.

Good times.

Forgive Me

But I want the Ohio State Buckeyes to lose a basketball game before the conference tournaments and NCAA tournaments get fired up in about 5 weeks.

Going into the conference tourneys and NCAA unbeaten frightens me more than free tickets to a Cavs game. That's too big a target on the backs of a young and talented team that's already playing beyond their years.

Yes, David Lighty played with Clark Kellogg and has been with the Buckeyes since the year after John Havlicek graduated but this is mostly a young and inexperienced Buckeye team led by Jared Sullinger down low and by Aaron Craft at PG. Almost feels like the year that Lighty actually arrived at Ohio State with Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook and those young kids along with Jamar Butler and Ron Lewis, went to the national championship game.

Sullinger is a monster. He's not a Greg Oden-type in terms of simply being massive and skilled but Sullinger has more in his offensive repertoire than Oden had (or at least that head coach Thad Matta initiated or allowed) and Craft is a gifted kid who plays tremendous defense and does a nice job running the show. Craft won't be leaving after his freshman year and he's going to be a leaderr for OSU for the next few years.

The Buckeyes have a legit shot at going deep in the tournament this season. I think at some point their youth hurts them but they do have seniors like Lighty, Jon Diebler and Dallas Lauderdale and junior William Buford to provide some balance and guidance(not to mention scoring and defense). I'd still like to see them lose a ball game and gain a little humility. Nothing like a loss to help hit the reset button and allow a coach to bitch, scream and make sure guys are paying attention to the details.

But we're getting closer to the tournament folks. One of the most enjoyable couple weeks on the calendar. And warm weather inevitably follows that. Which unfortunately means baseball and the Tribe.

Can't have it all.

 

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