This is like a boomerang.
That is, no matter how much you try to distance yourself from it, it keeps coming back to you and at you, hitting you squarely between the eyes.
We’re talking about what the Browns did – and didn’t do — in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft and how it has gotten them into the pickle in which they now find themselves.
Following their 31-10 loss to the New York Jets today in the regular-season opener, they have as their quarterbacks journeyman Josh McCown, who suffered a concussion in the first quarter on an ill-advised scramble, and Johnny Manziel, who said after the game that his sore right elbow is still not completely healed.
One of them will have to start next Sunday against the Oakland Raiders in the home opener. But which one? Injury-wise, it will be like picking between the lesser of two evils.
But if the Browns had done what they should have done in last year’s draft, then they wouldn’t be so quarterback-challenged now. They would have their quarterback of the future already. His name? Teddy Bridgewater.
He was there for the taking when it came the Browns’ turn to pick at No. 4 overall, but instead of selecting him, or wide receiver Sammy Watkins since that position is another of their crying needs, they traded out of the spot back to No. 8, where they chose cornerback Justin Gilbert. Later in the first round, they got their quarterback fix by trading back up to No. 22 to pick Manziel.
Gilbert is on his way to becoming the poster child for draft busts. Manziel has yet to prove whether he can – or can’t – be the young quarterback the Browns so desperately need. But the elbow problem is troubling. A young player shouldn’t have soreness there.
As for Bridgewater, the Minnesota Vikings, who ended up taking him, really like him. He’s the man around whom head coach Mike Zimmer is trying to build his team.
The Browns were reportedly very interested in Bridgewater when they left team headquarters the night before the draft, then, for whatever reason, they didn’t take him.
That kind of colossal boo-boo isn’t just one (year) and done with the damage it does. It can – and probably will – keep negatively affecting the Browns for five years. That’s what usually happens when you swing and miss on a quarterback in the first round.
So as head coach Mike Pettine and General Manager Ray Farmer, who is suspended for the first four games for his involvement in Textgate last year, contemplate this sad state of affairs, they need to also contemplate that they’re fully responsible for it, and that what is going on now is merely the fallout.
The fans just shake their heads and wait. They deserve so much better.
