NFL teams value draft picks like they were gold.
You can have the general manager’s car, house, wife and possibly even his first-born, but there’s no way you’re going to get that seventh-round draft pick in 2018. You’ll have to fight him to the death for it for it.
A draft pick is good only if a team knows how to use it. Otherwise, it is useless, like giving a caveman an iphone.
Remember when the likes of Eric Mangini, Tom Heckert, the self-proclaimed genius named Joe Banner, Mike Lombardi and Ray Farmer bragging about the fact they had traded for a first-rounder in the next year’s draft? They acted like they had fleeced some other team and pulled off the deal of the century. Then when next year’s draft rolled around, they used the pick on a linebacker who couldn’t play, a running back who couldn’t play, a cornerback who couldn’t play or a quarterback who couldn’t play?
Players who can’t play? What’s that worth?
Nothing, that’s what.
After those drafts, Browns fans wanted to be like the caveman and smash their iphone on a rock or perhaps the heel of the nearest dinosaur.
That’s why I was puzzled to hear all these sports talk show hosts on the radio debating each other about what kind of draft pick(s) they would have to have in a trade for wide receiver Josh Gordon.
A first-rounder.
Two first-rounders.
A first-rounder and a second-rounder.
Two second-rounders.
A first-rounder and an iphone.
A second-rounder and a chance to meet that caveman.
On and on it went like an episode of “Let’s Make A (Bad) Deal.”.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again that this Browns regime is on the right track. That opinion was helped by the team’s performance in this year’s draft, which, at this early stage, looks to be pretty good.
But there are no guarantees for any team with draft picks. Even the New England Patriots botch them. But not many.
I get that these Browns decision-makers want draft picks. That’s the way to build a team, to get picks and then pick good players.
But isn’t a young player with a super season under his belt at the pro level worth a whole heckuva lot more than some kid from Offthebeatentrack State who was second-team all-conference but has never set foot onto an NFL field?
We think so.
No, we know so.
If Gordon were 32 years old with a lot of wear and tear on his body, then certainly, we’d weight in with the talk show hosts and say that the Browns should trade him for draft picks.
Or even for a caveman, as long as his iphone was included in the deal.
But he’s not. Gordon is still young with hardly any wear and tear on his body. His potential is unlimited if he can just behave himself. Yes, that’s a big if but it’s a better bet than any draft pick.
Even a caveman is smart enough to value someone like Gordon much higher than draft picks — unless, of course, that pick is going to deliver a can’t-miss prospect like Justin Gilbert.
Ahem.
