What you talkin about Willis?

Leo Roth, of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, reports Buffalo Bills RB Willis McGahee claimed he was the best running back in the NFL during a conference call this week. McGahee said, "I'm the best back (in the NFL). Case closed." He also addressed the Oakland Raiders defense, saying, "I'm not worried what they're going to do. They better worry about what I'm going to do."

Um, yeah... Willis?

I think these guys might have something to say about your statement.

LaDainian Tomlinson
Edgerrin James
Corey Dillon
Shaun Alexander
Priest Holmes
Jamal Lewis

among others...

By the way, thanks for the Ohio State championship a couple years ago. Without that, being a sports fan in the state of Ohio might be impossible.

When Will We See Reuben Droughns?

According to this article the Browns might finally rely on the running game this week when they face the Detroit Lions. The Browns have run the ball an AFC low 104 times so far this season.

On multiple occasions since this season began, Deezo and I have called for more reliance on the running game in the Browns' offense and here we are, still not using the running game to its greatest effectiveness. This team has some experience on the offensive line and what appears to be an explosive running back in Reuben Droughns. It would be a shame to go the whole season without seeing him have a day where he runs for well over 100 yards with a couple of big breakers.

The team is capable of having these plays. They just need to be given the chance with a steady diet of running plays.

Is Manny Ramirez Coming Home to Cleveland?

If Ramirez does request to be traded, Genske says "his preference would be Anaheim. He also still loves Cleveland, and would go back there." Another possibility would be Arizona, if Boston would take some of the contracts the Diamondbacks are trying to move, including Troy Glaus and Luis Gonzalez. Texas was in play at the deadline.

Despite the fact that he took the money and ran to Boston, I think the Cleveland fans, overall, would love to have Manny Ramirez back in a Tribe uniform. But, due to the size of Manny's contract (almost $20 million per year) it would be interesting to see what (if anything) the Indians could to in terms of having cash as a part of the deal in bringing him back to Cleveland.

But, don't get your hopes up because that contract is over 40% of what the Indians total payroll (around $45 million) was this year. To think that this team would bring in a salary like that, is less than likely.

Plus, what players would they have to give up to make that deal happen?

Jeff Garcia May Play for Lions in Cleveland on Sunday

Jeff Garcia and Joey Harrington split snaps during practice much of this week and he has been cleared by doctors to play.

I know it is hard to believe that this could be trouble for the Browns as they try to win two in a row in Cleveland Browns stadium this week. But please try to remember that Jeff Garcia hasn't really been that bad of a QB in his career overall. It took special circumstances with an imploding organization with an imploding head coach and a horrible offensive line here in Cleveland last year for Garcia to look so bad.

This isn't to say that the Lions are a good team, but if you take an underperforming team with a couple weapons and anything can happen.

NFL Power Rankings 10/19/2005

The newest NFL Power rankings are up on ESPN.com

No surprise at number 1. The Colts are far and away the best team of the season so far. They are still undefeated and they beat back a St. Louis Rams team that seemed quite comfortable in the dome in the first half on Monday night. Indy was down 17 points in the first quarter and there wasn't a look of panic on any faces on the sidelines. Quite amazing really.

The Browns stumbled this week against the Ravens and they dropped from 21 to 25 for this week, but the ESPN folks also stumbled.

Domination at the hands of the struggling Ravens is not the type of effort Romeo Crennel anticipated coming off the bye week.

You're right it isn't the type of effort that Crennel anticipated coming off the bye week. That's because they WEREN'T COMING OFF THE BYE WEEK. That was the game against Chicago last week.

Come on now ESPN, with two clicks you could have checked out the full season schedule on your own site. Despite that error, here are some other things of note from the Power Rankings this week.

The Super Bowl Champion Patriots dropped from number 4 to number 12 as they go to 3-3 for the season. Now that Tedi Bruschi has announced he is going to start practicing, does anyone expect anything less than an emotional rollercoaster where the Pats get inspired and win out the rest of the season? I truly hate the Pats, but you could really see something like that occur with this team couldn't you?

The Texans at 0-5 have a stranglehold on the bottom spot, but there is a logjam of teams vying for the second worst slot with 1-4 records. The Niners, Vikings, Raiders and Packers are all sitting at 1-4. Mixed in are the Saints with their 2-4 record because they have looked so woeful.

Here's hoping the Browns can win a couple more and stay out of the bottom slots. Cleveland's neighbor to the north Detroit is sitting at 23 this week, and that appears to be something of a winnable game for the Browns. Too bad Jeff Garcia isn't playing. I would like to see someone get sacked a couple times when he isn't wearing the Cleveland Browns uniform.

Today's Cleveland Sports Conversation - 10/18/2005

Here is today's sports conversation between your resident pundits. I started things off today.

According to an article today in the Plain Dealer, Browns coach Romeo Crennel hasn't ruled out a change at QB. If you read the quote more carefully, it pretty much says that Crennel doesn't care who has to be substituted from the lineup. He needs a better offensive performance. I don't think he really had a finger pointed at Trent Dilfer, but at the same time, anything is possible.

So, how do you feel about a change at QB this early in the season and this early in the career of Charlie Frye? I am sure many people will start pointing to the failures of Tim Couch when he was thrust into the action so quickly in his rookie season.

First of all, I think I would be happy to see Trent Dilfer continue to build up a momentum with this team. I think he is a solid enough QB that he could really help this team do some things despite his record over the last two weeks.

At the same time, I wouldn't be miserable to see Charlie Frye get some experience. And I don't think there are many similarities between this season and when Tim Couch got his face beat in during his rookie year.

Reuben Droughns is way better than Terry Kirby.
The offensive line is much better.
These receivers and tight ends are much better than the 1999 receivers.

So, while I think it is still hard for a rookie QB to come in and be successful, and while I know that this Browns team can't support a rookie QB the way that the Steelers supported Roethlisberger last year, but it might be good for Frye to get some experience handing the ball to Reuben Droughns and throwing slants to Northcutt.

I am still in the lets wait and give him a year to learn the offense and pick up the pace of the game mind set. Roethlisberger was never asked to win games for the Steelers last year, that is why he thrived in a low risk, low accountability system. The Browns run a similar system, but do rely on their QB to check off more, and make big throws. The Steelers o-line is also so accomplished and has such great cohesion that they can win games only throwing the ball 12 times. The Browns have a much better o-line than 99, but they have yet to develop a lot of cohesiveness as a unit. They also are still waiting for a clear cut option to emerge at running back. For these reasons they rely on their QB to stretch the field and make big throws in pressure situations.

I think Charlie Frye could probably do a decent job as the Browns starting QB, but why risk getting him injured, or hurting his confidence in a rebuilding season when we are not challenging for the division. Trent Dilfer on the other hand can teach Charlie Frye by example all the preparation and checks that a QB coach may not be able to show him. Also Dilfer is near the end of his career, so an injury like a torn ligament or broken bone would not set the Browns back years and years. However if Frye were to get the nod and be injured we could potentially be setting the maturation of our offense back 2-3 years. Maybe I am being like Kanish in Rounders here, but the smart play is not to gamble with what we don’t want to lose.

Fair enough. Like I said, I could go either way on that one.

Regardless of who is playing QB there needs to be better offensive play this week against Detroit. I think the key (and it was one of my keys that the Browns didn't listen to last week) is to really pound the ball and give the running backs at least 25 snaps. I think this team's offensive line is capable of helping the backs average 3-5 yards per carry and with each additional running play we increase the odds that one of these guys is going to break a big one.

Am I delusional, or do you also think that there is some serious potential in this running game that we might not be seeing due to a lack of commitment from the play calling?

Finally, do you think this defense can do anything to increase the pass rush? I am not dissatisfied with the defense as a whole. They aren't giving up huge points per game, but at the same time they aren't really forcing a bunch of turnovers either. One of the ways that this team could really put some points on the board is by turning some of those field goal drives into turnovers.

I think The Browns are a lot like Ohio State in the fact that they have talent on the line in the backfield and at wide out, they just don’t have a team identity yet to really hang their hat on. I think if we committed to getting Ruben Droughns 25-30 carries per game he would be a 1000 yard rusher this season. Instead we pound Droughns on 1st, try a short pass on 2nd down, and end up with hard to manage 3rd down situations were we are forced to throw down field. I think with our o-line we should make teams commit to stopping Droughns, and then go down field to D-Cutt, Bryant, and Braylon (when he recovers from his staph infection). I don’t know if we are impatient or if we get behind and need to start throwing, but the Browns need to commit to the run and then build a passing game off of it, not vice versa.

I am not sure what they can do to beef up the pass rush. I think they may need to gamble more with their OLB’s, or put their corners in more man to man situations while bringing heat up the middle. Either way they need to figure something out to get heat on the passer, because any quarterback with 15 seconds to throw will look like a perennial probowler...case and point Anthony Freaking Wright.

Mediocre teams can be really dangerous when they have a tenacious defense. I am not sure if the Browns by design can attack like they need to in order to cause turnovers and long yardage situations, while also staying in football games. I think this comes back to not having a team identity, if we are going to live and die by the blitz, then we should be bringing heat 75% of the time, if we are going to be a bend or don’t break unit, then we need to be able to come up with the big turnover when needed, and stay away from costly penalties that keep drives alive. Attacking usually means gambling in coverage, and frankly this group of DB’s may not be good enough for that just yet.

The 2001 Browns Draft

I was reading an article on Cleveland.com about the Browns cutting Michael Jameson after he finished up his four week suspension for the league's substance abuse policies. Here is the key quote.

In a season when some of the 2001 draftees should be in their prime, Jameson was the last hope to salvage something from that draft. The others were Gerard Warren (now with Denver), Quincy Morgan (now with Pittsburgh), James Jackson (out of football), Anthony Henry (now with Dallas), Jeremiah Pharms (out of football), Paul Zukauskas (out of football) and Andre King (out of football).

You want to talk about a real failure in terms of a draft, this is one for the ages. Jeremiah Pharms was brought up on charges and never saw a single day of practice.

Pharms, who played linebacker for the University of Washington, was arrested and jailed in Sacramento, Calif., for an alleged role in a shooting and armed robbery near the university on March 14, 2000. According to KING-TV of Seattle, more than one victim suffered serious injuries.

How hilarious is that? I mean, how do you draft a guy that you know so little about? How could you know so little about a player that he ends up being brought up on charges for armed robbery after you draft him?

This is why we aren't sorry that Butch Davis is gone.

Just so you know what the Browns missed out on in that draft, here are some of the draft picks in the first round who would have been better than Gerard Warren with the third pick.

LaDainian Tomlinson (5)
Richard Seymour (6)
Dan Morgan (11)
Santana Moss (16)
Deuce McCallister (23)
Reggie Wayne (30)
Todd Heap (31)

In the second round, the Browns took Quincy Morgan with the 33rd pick. Here is who they missed out on.

Alge Crumpler (35)
Chad Johnson (36)
Kendrell Bell (39)
Fred Smoot (45)
Gary Baxter (62)

Not that you are going to get every pick right, but the Butch Davis Browns picks were mostly awful. In fairness, they did take Anthony Henry in the third round and he proved that he was at least an above average player, but overall, Butch's average is horrible.

Out of all those players, you would like to see at least two doing something with the team today, and as the article points out, not a single one will have the chance as they are all playing with other teams or out of football.

DeSagana Diop in Dallas

While Diop was never that great of a player in Cleveland, he was always something of a crowd favorite. He was drafted number 8 in the 2001 draft in a clear mistake by the Cavs at the time, but it didn't seem to matter to Cavs fans as the years progressed. They were too busy hoping for him to do well.

Unfortunately, he was never able to do well enough for the Cavs to keep him around. He became a free agent this off-season and the Mavericks signed Diop to a 3-year $7 million contract and he is the leading candidate to be their backup center this season.

DeSagana Diop showed Sunday night why the Mavericks signed him to a three-year, $7 million free-agent contract.

And then some.

Diop blocked five shots and scored the game-winning basket as the Mavs eased to a dramatic 104-102 win over the New York Knicks.

Diop's winning basket came on a tip-in as time expired, improving the Mavs' preseason record to 2-1.

There were some detractors. WKNR's Kenny Roda often referred to Diop as 'Lasagna Flop' on his afternoon radio show, but it always seemed like he was making fun of the Cavs more than DeSagana himself. And despite the fact that there was plenty of draft-day criticism to go around amongst the Cavs picks in recent memory, (Trajan Langdon anyone?) you couldn't help but root for such a seemingly nice guy.

So, here's hoping Diop can finally become the player we all wanted him to be in Cleveland.

Still Recovering

I am still attempting to recover from the game yesterday. The Browns did not even show up offensively all day long.

A lot of people will surely go after Trent Dilfer for not having had a good game, and while he might not have been his sharpest, I think a lot of the blame goes to the offensive line. Also, you could give some kudos to B'more's D-line, as they put pressure on Dilfer all day long, causing interceptions, fumbles and generally disrupting any potential flow that the Browns' offense might have mustered.

The defense played decently enough despite some big plays. They could have done a better job getting pressure on the QB, which I said was a big key to success before the game.

More analysis to come.