The Cleveland Browns and Phil Savage continued their win-now strategy by continuing to trade future picks in order to attempt 2008 success in the NFL Draft.The Browns moved quickly in the fourth round to move up to the 5th pick of the round to work a trade with Dallas and used the pick to select UNLV linebacker Beau Bell.
The Browns traded both their 4th and 5th-round picks in order to move up and I liked this move.
Bell was a projected second-rounder before suffering a knee injury at Senior Bowl workouts and the injury caused him to drop, but should not cause Bell to miss playing time in training camp.
The addition addressed the Browns' largest need and Bell could even break the starting lineup with a good camp.
Bell can play the inside or the outside backer and gives the Browns just what they needed and I fully support the move.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the next Phil Savage move.
Again, Cleveland traded with Dallas (Gasp!) and moved back to their original spot in Round 4 to take tight end Martin Rucker of Missouri.
Rucker is more of a pass-catching tight end than a blocker and does not seem to play a position of need, but was a productive player at Missouri.
Rucker was a Mackey finalist for the top tight end in the nation and was a first-team all American for the Tigers.
The knock here is not the player, but the position and the cost for Rucker as Savage shipped the Browns 3rd rounder in 2008 to the Cowboys.
Rucker could turn out to be a steal if an injury happens, but I think the cost was too high for a player that may not play very much in 2008.
The Browns had no picks in Round 5 and did not have their own 6th-rounder having moved it to Philadelphia in a previous trade.
But the Browns did have a sixth-rounder, the Seattle Seahawks pick that they obtained for Charlie Frye and Savage could not decide which of two players to select with the pick.
The solution?
Get them both and Savage did just that by again reacquiring a pick that was theirs originally by working a trade with the Eagles for the pick that followed the Seattle pick.
First, the Browns added Ahtyba Rubin, a defensive tackle from Iowa State.
The 300+ plus Rubin is more of a run stuffer than a pass rusher and should help with depth issues at defensive tackle.
The trade with the Eagles brought Wisconsin wideout Paul Hubbard to Cleveland.
The cost of this pick? The Browns 2009 5th rounder.
So Phil Savage, who believes in building the team through the draft has already peddled 2 picks for next year.
I don't have a good feeling about this.
Back to Hubbard, a rangy wideout with great leaping skills and was the Big Ten long jump champion in track, but had problems staying on the field.
So I asked about him to the most knowledgeable Wisconsin follower that I know-Ryan.
"Hubbard can jump, but struggles catching the ball"(Isn't catching the ball a must for a pass catcher?)
"Plus he is not very physical and he gets hurt all the time".
"Twice during his career, he looked to be turning the corner and then got hurt and went back to the same mediocre player he was before".
"But he might be OK as a red zone guy, where you just throw the ball up and hope he comes down with it".
Not a sterling endorsement from someone that generally is very scout friendly to Badger players.
The Browns used their final pick in Round 7 on a guy that even I had never heard in Alex Hall.,
a Division II player from St.Augustine college.
Hall is 6'3, but just 235, and is listed as a DE/LB combo player.
Looks to me to be a depth guy, but I don't know enough to be sure...
Overall, Bell makes this an acceptable draft considering the lack of picks and Rucker is a talented player as well, but trading two 2009 picks already and failing to address the secondary at all is very questionable in my opinion.
Photo Credit
Bell-Las Vegas Journal Review
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