Steelers trade with Browns

[RuthlessBurgher]

So the last time we traded away a future 3rd round pick was involving the 1974 draft, and now we have traded away a future 3rd round pick in the 2014 draft. That 1974 draft just happened to be the best draft in NFL history, even without a 3rd round pick (we got Lynn Swann in round 1, Jack Lambert in round 2, John Stallworth in round 4, and Mike Webster in round 5). So, provided that we get 4 Hall of Famers in a draft that takes place 40 years after those historic selections, we'll be golden.

[hawaiiansteel]

Cleveland Browns draft -- Joe Banner is really impressed with Joe Banner

By Bud Shaw, The Plain Dealer
on April 28, 2013



Why is this man smiling? It just might be because Joe Banner knows he's smarter than everyone else in the room.

Here's what's clear: with this draft, Joe Banner has upped the ante. As he has all along -- in hiring a first-time head coach and limiting the powers of a traditional GM -- Banner is betting big on himself.

He's even betting against the Pittsburgh Steelers in an area (defense) where they own a rather impressive track record.

You can talk about how the Browns, in separate deals with Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, played simple odds in trading two middle-round picks for higher picks in 2014. The math favors them.

But they still have to cash those picks. Delayed gratification is only as gratifying as the end result.

Banner seems bent on proving he's not only the smartest man to make picks in Berea recently but also in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cincinnati.

There's something to admire in his self-assuredness. You'd just feel better if the fingerprints on talent procurement during his Philadelphia days were more easily traceable to him, not Andy Reid.

In a pre-draft news conference Banner professed an affinity for trading down based on his Philly experience. Then he stayed put at No. 6 (with deals on the table) to take LSU's Barkevious Mingo.

Mingo has the speed to become a dynamic game-changer. He made sense over corner Dee Milliner.

Good corners can greatly impede passing games. But matched against the biggest and most dynamic wide receivers in the game, even good corners (who are so often significantly shorter) are fighting a mismatch. Disrupting the quarterback is a surer thing.

Mingo arrived in Berea Friday, turned sideways and disappeared. He looks more like an NBA small forward. He'll have to put on weight and he'll have to make the transition to linebacker but he's hardly the only projection to go in the Top 10 of this draft.

Banner could've made a trade, reclaimed the second-round pick used on Josh Gordon and perhaps still come away with Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones. Jones going to Pittsburgh instead only makes Banner's decision more intriguing.

Banner more directly engaged Pittsburgh by trading with the Steelers in the fourth round, clearing the way for the Steelers to draft a position (safety) of need for both teams.

Not only did the Browns' team president shrug off doing business within the division, he welcomed it as an opportunity to help yourself and hurt your rival. That's bold, given the Browns' two biggest rivals.

Especially given how the last major draft day deal with a rival went -- Haloti Ngata to Baltimore -- you'd feel better about Banner's approach if his GM was, say, Ozzie Newsome.

This deal with Pittsburgh made more sense than that one with Baltimore if only because the downside for the Browns isn't as dangerous in the middle rounds.

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