Monday, September 7, 2015

An indictment of another bad draft-Terrence West Traded

The Cleveland Browns were ready to move on from second year running back Terrence West,apparently so ready that they were ready to release West,if they couldn't find a trading partner.

That wasn't needed as the Browns were able to get a conditional seventh round pick from the Tennessee Titans for the former third rounder.
As exciting of a return as that is,the Browns took the lowest thing that you could receive and had to have a condition slapped on it for a player that just one year ago was not only worth a third round pick,but was valued as being worth trading an additional fourth and sixth round selection for.

I wasn't a Terrence West fan-he danced behind the offensive line far too often for my tastes and he didn't exactly run hard between the tackles either.
West wasn't a pass catching threat and I liked Isaiah Crowell better last season anyway,so this isn't really about losing Terrence West,although with Duke Johnson dealing with concussion issues,one could argue mildly about the timing.

What this does do is raise even more questions about the current Browns regime.
Take away the silly ( and easier to laugh at) "Play like a Brown" stuff and take away the reported "maturity issues" with West alone and look at the 2014 draft.
Many have said that you cannot tag Ray Farmer with the draft because he wasn't on the job long enough to truly sink his teeth in the minutiae of knowing players background.
The Browns have now dealt with these issues with three players from that draft-two number ones and a number three and yet it isn't Ray Farmer's fault?
If Farmer is supposed to be given a pass for not knowing these things with Justin Gilbert,Johnny Manziel and Terrence West,answer me this-Why are you trading up for guys that you don't know everything about?
Why were these things not caught by scouts or crosscheckers,employees that total job was to catch those types of potential issues?
Joel Bitonio has been a standout in round two,Christian Kirksey will start and Pierre Desir looks like a surprise in the 4th,but not only missing on early,but trading assets to miss is simply a disaster.

The only saving grace has been the signings of undrafted free agents Isaiah Crowell and Ka'Waun Williams at two of those positions and some argue that those signings offset the Gilbert and West disaster by "look at Crowell and Williams as the high picks and Gilbert/West as the free agents".
Simply put,that is a cop-out.
If you thought that was the truth,why not take them high and not take the risk of losing them?
Or maybe take other players and make the team even stronger?

I'm not ready to say Ray Farmer needs to go,but the body of work shown thus far is not good.
Once again,the Browns have shown severe front office issues as once again,the team has placed higher priority on saving money and gambling on an unknown quantity rather than on a proven winner in the front office.
And no,I don't count Mike Holmgren as a proven winner in the front office as his general manager reign in Seattle was unsuccessful as only when he became a coach only did the Seahawks turn things around.

I'll have a Browns preview up later this week.
I don't think it will be pretty....

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