The NFL is the only sport where there is a sport within the sport.
We’re talking about the NFL Draft.
The season is still going – there is, of course, all kinds of talk about something called Super Bowl 52 between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, and the game is still well over a week away – but there has been considerable buzz this week about the Senior Bowl practices and how they will impact the draft in about three months.
That’s especially true in the case of the Browns, for their top personnel people and coaches are at the Senior Bowl looking at everything about everybody, most notably, of course, the quarterbacks, for they know that until they find their franchise guy – and their bridge guy – then they’re never, ever going to get out of the muck.
As such, you will read all kinds of stuff about the draft and the Browns between now and late April. There will be so much of it, in fact, that it could choke an elephant. You won’t be able to remember it all. It would be impossible to do that.
But if you’re going to remember anything – not just at this early stage of the process but going forward in the long haul – let it be the headline, and the subheadline, from a story by Albert Breer on sportsillustrated.com’s Monday Morning Quarterback section.
The headline is, “Cleveland Browns Won’t Be Starting From Scratch in Evaluating the Draft’s Top Quarterbacks.”
The subheadline is, “New GM John Dorsey holds all the cards in the walkup to the draft and has a head start on scouting the consensus top four quarterbacks.”
Those two headlines say it all. They really do. That is the gist of where the Browns are at right now. It’s all on Dorsey to figure it out. And, unlike Sashi Brown, Dorsey will do it in concert with head coach Hue Jackson.