Yes, the draft happened during the weekend, and you can check out my round one thoughts here. I think it still has a few years left, if I’m counting in Roger Goodell units. But as you all know, the deeper the draft goes, the less fantasy-relevant it gets. (Don’t worry though, we’ll cover the draft more this week.) And while that probably isn’t why Josh Gordon decided to net himself a possible season-long suspension for smoking some green to grab back the fantasy headlines, what this lede presupposes is, maybe it is?
There are a few angles here, and all of them are sh*tty for Cleveland. First, according to the report, the Browns made their day one draft decisions with Jimmy Haslam and Ray Farmer having complete knowledge of Gordon’s failed drug test (and the coaching staff left out of the loop). Sammy Watkins much? Yeah, he might have helped… just throwing that out there. Also, seems like a minor roster change like this should be relayed to the coaching staff at some point… right? Another angle is the Johnny Manziel angle. which is to say we are now possibly reaching the Ryan Leaf angle. Who is he going to throw to now? Johnny Football… more like Johnny Clipboard at this point, amiright?
I guess the silver lining here is that, sans dynasty leagues, this doesn’t really hurt any of us per say. I had day-dreams of what would happen if I ranked Gordon as WR1 overall, yes, ahead of Megatron… but let’s just say his smokin’ a ‘j’ saved a Jay from himself. Regardless, the Cleveland Browns… my goodness, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Which usually ends with me choosing both.
Bryce Brown gets traded from one crowded backfield to another…
Then again, at least he joins a backfield that has a guy that has missed 12 games in the last three seasons (Fred Jackson), and a guy that seems to still be trying to catch up with the hype-train (C.J. Spiller). It doesn’t help your cause by only netting a total of 12 touchdowns in 61 career games played. That’s like starting a race with several u-turns, semi-circles, and then taking a 17-hour nap. That’s how us normal people start a race. Not (allegedly) first round fantasy talents. That being said, I can’t see much change in Brown’s value right now, and I don’t see him siphoning off carries from Jackson or Spiller. They have a tandem that works, when healthy of course, and Brown will simply act as depth.
Miscellaneous:Â
– In other Bills news, Stevie Johnson was traded to the 49ers, thus entering him in the battle for targets in a receiving core that, gets on average, like 0.023 targets per game. So good luck I guess? It’s Vernon Davis‘ world, they’re just living in it. So let’s call him an ‘unstable’ WR2-ish. But what do I know? I don’t draft receivers from that team. Which probably means I know a lot. Or just enough, if you want the less ego-driven statement.
– Yes, a lot of runningbacks got drafted on teams that have established backs (Denver, Cincinnati, Dallas, and San Francisco to name a few), but this isn’t the end of the world for Montee Ball or DeMarco Murray or Frank Gore or even pizza-maker Giovanni Benard. Oh, wait, no, that’s not right. Giovani Bernard, the football player. The extra ‘n’ really does make the difference… Anyhow, moral of the story, teams do this all the time, and I wouldn’t get too worked up about it. That is, unless you have such a long name, people have just given up and called you the ‘Law Firm’. Yeah, then I might worry a bit…
