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Home > Blogs > Dawging the Browns > Archives > 2009 > April > 16
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Kokinis speaks, says nothing
Every year at this time, the Browns trot out their general manager to field questions about the upcoming NFL draft.
One year, Phil Savage sat at the elevated stage as his personnel aide tediously addressed the top five prospects at every position, as if this information wasn’t readily available 100 other places.
Sometimes a hint slips out, such as two years ago when Savage said offensive tackle Joe Thomas might be the “safe pick” for the Browns. They proceeded to take him No. 3 overall.
But those instances are ever-so-rare. Most NFL executives specialize in saying little. The great ones, like Bill Belichick, say less.
Inevitably, somebody writes about how the front office has been hunkered down, deep in study, as if this qualifies as some sort of surprise nine days before one of the most important dates on the football calendar.
Until they trade Brady Quinn and/or Braylon Edwards (both are hotly rumored) for additional selections, the Browns own the No. 5 overall pick and four more, including two in the second round, No. 36 and No. 50.
How GM George Kokinis and head coach Eric Mangini plan to spend these picks is anybody’s guess. Analyst consensus says Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree in the first round, but that makes more sense if Edwards — who last season turned into a cross between Steve Holden and Fair Hooker — is dealt to the New York Giants, who seem to want him.
The house organ, ClevelandBrowns.com, offered these non-nuggets from Kokinis (what, you were expecting useful information?) during his Thursday emergence:
On trade possibilities: “If the phone rings, we’re going to pick it up. All teams, every year, you look at every option. You never know what might happen on draft day.”
On the drafting philosophy: “If you’re sitting there on a player and you like him, you take him. If there’s a consensus, which we will have, then you pick him. We’re going to take the right guy for this city, for this team.”
Maybe this explains why the three previous regimes whiffed so often. They didn’t take the right guy for this city and this team. At least it sounds better than saying they didn’t know what they were doing.
Guess you have to give Kokinis and Mangini the same benefit of the doubt previous front offices received, though.
And it would be impossible for them to fare any worse. Right? Right?
