The Browns Should Go Defense, Not Michael Crabtree, With #5 Pick

(FYI…if you caught this article during the first 10 or so minutes it was posted, you’ll realize it’s been edited. I should have made the edits before posting the article live, but I’m making them now.

I originally went off on a pretty big rant about Michael Crabtree and his ego, before realizing that I don’t know him and don’t legitimately have a basis to make such judgments. I still speculate a bit below, based on some of the rumors I’ve been reading online, but define it more specifically as speculation. There are a lot of reports floating around from teams and “draft gurus” that Crabtree is a bit full of himself, but we are also at the time of year when almost nothing should be trusted as teams jockey for draft leverage.

I’ve been burned by trusting vague reports before, so I’d rather err on the side of caution and keep the discussion related mostly to football, as opposed to judgments on ego and character for which I have no first-hand basis to make. So my apologies for the publish-and-change, but I’m much more comfortable with the post as it is now.)

I have yet to decide who I want to see the Cleveland Browns end up with on Saturday when they pick 5th in the 2009 NFL Draft. I think as Browns fans we all know that the most desirable scenario, and probably the most preferred scenario in Berea, is to trade out of the #5 slot; but probably all teams and fans in the top 10 are thinking the same thing. Unfortunately for the Browns, the current economic realities of the NFL combined with the lack of super-stud prospects at the top of the draft mean that they more than likely have to pick at #5.

Who should they take? I don’t pretend to have a definitive answer to that question. There are a lot of hardworking people in the Browns war room right now who have been studying these prospects and the draft landscape all year, and even they probably do not yet have a definitive answer. I’ll leave the sorting to those guys and the predicting to the mock draft mavens across the web.

Plus, there have been so many rumors floating around regarding potential trades involving Braylon Edwards (a possibility still with the Giants, although it’s not looking great) and Brady Quinn (I don’t buy it) that I have been waiting for something to come to fruition that will help to stabilize the Browns’ most immediate need with their first selection. Right now there are more variables than an algebra book.

(Coincidentally, that last sentence easily ranks among the ten worst I’ve ever written for simply being lame and pathetic. I was about to hit backspace when I decided that something so God awfully putrid should maintain its existence so as to serve as a reminder and hopefully a lesson learned. In that respect, I compare it to the Browns 2008 season. We’d all love to erase last year and pretend it didn’t happen, but just as I will be motivated to never offer another public display of such elementary prose, hopefully the Browns will be motivated to not offer another such and elementary, and equally putrid, display of professional football.)

Without question, there are many possibilities that should or could be available at #5 that would fill one of the many gaping holes in the Browns’ starting roster; that is, assuming the guy picked can actually play at the NFL level. Tim Couch and Courtney Brown, among others, make even the most optimistic Browns fan (and readers of this site know that I am exactly that, perhaps to a fault sometimes) a little weary at the thought of counting on a high draft pick to be a franchise player.

Aaron Curry appears to be a safe bet to be a solid linebacker for 10+ years. BJ Raji certainly has the talent and athletic girth to form a pretty formidable inside duo with Shaun Rogers. Brian Orakpo is an incredible talent who could be a superstar if he also develops a consistent motor and the requisite football acumen. And Brian Hartline is a field-stretching future superstar who conjures hallucinations of a Steve Largent-Randy Moss hybrid when you see him on film.

Just kidding. We’re your biggest fans Hartline. Seriously. No…really. (Just wait…surely our resident Buckeye apologist KVB will come leaping to Hartline’s defense.)

Bringing it back to serious mode, if you have been paying attention to the latest draft “speculation” — and I use even that loose term loosely because “disinformation” and/or “strategic gamesmanship” are more accurate — then you know that Mark Sanchez has joined Michael Crabtree as a hot name attached to the Browns at #5. I addressed the Browns-Sanchez-Crabtree rumors this past weekend.

Let me get my thoughts on Mark Sanchez out of the way real quickly here: I think the Browns would be beyond foolish to take him. First, they would have to trade Brady Quinn to even make it plausible, and though I am not sold on Brady Quinn as a future franchise quarterback I certainly think he will be a better pro than Mark Sanchez. The USC QB is entering the draft early (the history of which we analyzed this week) with only 16 starts to his name. So unless the Browns want to wait three or four years for their #5 pick to start paying dividends, they should file Mark Sanchez under the “too absurd to consider” column.

And that brings us to Michael Crabtree, a name that many a mock draft has had penciled in for the Browns. Our very own Ryan Russell even made his own plea for the Browns to draft Crabtree last night in his attempt at Clevelander optimism. (And a mighty fine attempt it was, save for the nonsense about the Indians.)

Just so we’re clear, let me emphatically state for the record right now: I absolutely, positively DO NOT want the Browns to draft Michael Crabtree.

And it’s nothing personal against Crabtree. I have no vendetta of any type against him. But I think the Browns would be making a huge mistake by even considering him at #5, the reasons for which I am about to get into.

In his column at SI.com yesterday, Peter King outlined the terrible odds of picking a WR in the first round who can come in and produce early. I realize that the Browns do not exactly fit the description of having a “win-now” roster — and a reasonable argument could be made that the Browns are in a great position to roll the dice on a WR since they are not under pressure to win a Super Bowl next season — but I still don’t like it, not this high in the draft with so many other problems to fix.

If we couldn’t make it work with Braylon Edwards, whose one very good season coincided with the Browns one good recent season, what makes the Browns think that anything will be different with Crabtree? All we’ll be doing is eliminating the development time that Braylon has had to make the transition from college to pro, which is especially difficult at WR. How does subbing in a rookie Crabtree for a now-veteran Braylon make us better in the next 2-3 years?

This season should be about progression, not regression.

Besides, if this draft is deep at one position it’s WR. The Browns have a 2nd round pick to grab a solid WR (Brian Robiskie, for instance) and perhaps other first day or early second day picks should they consummate a trade. Why not strengthen the defense, and the locker room, with the first pick? I’ve never heard anyone say that “wide receivers win championships” but defenses certainly do.

For the Browns to play Mangini-style football and be successful, the egos must be kept to a minimum and the defense must make significant improvement. The Browns are a team still searching for an identity and last year proved that the locker room is lacking in true leaders. Bringing a guy like Crabtree into such an environment will not, in my opinion, provide the checks his young but reportedly growing ego needs to become a true team-first WR that fulfills his potential. He’ll walk in with little talent at the WR position to challenge him and could believe in his own head that he’s the Browns’ savior. Add in money, plus his increasing profile and level of fame, and any narcissistic tendencies he may have will only grow and become more prominent. And this is not necessarily a judgment on Crabtree as much as it is a generalized judgment of many young, talented WRs in the NFL. And if any of such speculation were to come to fruition, that is decidedly not what the Browns need, and one of the primary reasons, I thought, why we were trying to purge ourselves of Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards this offseason.

Plus, after watching Browns fans turn on Braylon last year, it’s pretty obvious that self-absorbed shenanigans will not be tolerated. At least Crabtree isn’t from Michigan, but where there is smoke there could be fire. And the Browns need to minimize risk with their #5 selection. Thus, I just don’t think Crabtree in Cleveland seems like a good fit.

My advice to the Browns is to stay away from Michael Crabtree. I think he’ll be a productive NFL WR, but not a great one on the level of Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, or even Calvin Johnson or Terrell Owens. And if he isn’t going to be a top-flight, game-breaking WR, which is my humble opinion and that of others, then I believe that makes him not worth the #5 pick. WRs need to be home runs if you pick them that high in the draft. I see Michael Crabtree as a double…that tries to get stretched into a triple by someone who thinks they have more speed than they do, and who ultimately gets thrown out at third.

My advice to Michael Crabtree? Call up Braylon for advice on which of your five suits to pick.

If Saturday goes my way, Michael Crabtree won’t be coming to Cleveland. I wish him the best in his NFL career, and I think whoever drafts him will be getting a productive WR, but not the kind of production that warrants a top-5 pick. I think the Browns can be better served, and the franchise will be better off in the long-run, by choosing the best defensive player available at #5.

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