Draft Recap: Browns and Dolphins Take A Step Back

By Jason Comack

Grading drafts is a futile process. After all drafts should be evaluated three years in hindsight, not one minute after it's done. With that being said it is possible for teams to have good or bad drafts based on where players are picked, what trades were made and so on.

Here are two teams that had particularly poor drafts.

Cleveland Browns

The Browns walk out having the strangest draft. They traded up one spot (giving up fourth, fifth and seventh round picks to do so) to draft Trent Richardson. In 2010 Peyton Hillis had a monster season for the Browns (Hillis was a mere throw in as part of the Brady Quinn trade.) As Bill Barnwell quipped on Twitter the lesson the Browns took away from that was to invest a ton of resources into a running back.

Does the offensive line make the running back? Or does the running back make the offense? It's a debate that's been settled. Even if Richardson is Adrian Peterson he doesn’t have the ability to transform the team like many think he does.

At pick 22 the Browns decided to take 28 year old quarterback Brandon Weeden. What’s confusing about this selection is Weeden was the Browns backup plan after Kendall Wright. Beat writers have called it a confounding pick and a total throw away. The biggest myth of the draft was that Weeden was NFL ready because he’s older. More mature, probably, however his age won’t make NFL defenses any slower and it won’t help him learn an NFL offense any faster.

All in all the Browns used two first round picks, a fourth, fifth and seventh and walked out with Richardson and Weeden. The Redskins on the other hand used three first round picks and a second to draft Robert Griffin III. What would you rather have done?

Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins selection of Ryan Tannenhill was also a head scratcher Let’s recap Tannenhill’s college career.

In 2007 Tannenhill red-shirted.

In 2008 Mike Sherman took over as head coach. Tannehill competed for the quarterback job against Stephen McGee and Jerrod Johnson. Tannenhill finished third in the QB derby and Sherman moved him to receiver.

In 2009 Tannehill competed against Jerrod Johnson for the starting QB job. Johnson was named the starting QB.

In 2010 Tannenhill began the season at WR. He didn’t take over until midway into the season. Starting seven games.

In 2011 Tannenhill started all 13 games at QB. The Aggies would end up with a disappointing 6-7 record and Mike Sherman would be fired after the season.

I'd bet Mike Sherman is totally stoked to coach Ryan Tannenhill again. Maybe he can move him to wide receiver again. Maybe Tannenhill will get Mike Sherman fired for a second time. 

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