Actually, I do care. However, like the lunatic I am, I am repeating a behavior that never has worked in the past and, yet, expecting a different result.
I watched the NFL draft.
This is a Cleveland Indians blog but I couldn't let this draft go without a comment or two.
First, this is the worst couple of draft picks I have seen and, actually, the worst use of a draft since the reinvented Browns first draft where they took all the wrong players at all the wrong times and turned Tim Couch into a target without any protection, shortening his career to a point where we never really knew how good he could have been. But that's another story.
Mayfield and Ward were by far the worst use of these two picks. Despite popular belief Dorsey did not inherit a desk in Cleveland with a scrap of paper saying "Mayfield above all else" or something like that. And the draftniks will not be saying how the Browns sprinkled magic dust on the draft to get these two guys. The owner will not be waltzing into the post-draft party (assuming, after this, one is even held) and say 'We had a great day'. Basically, this is not the movies, it is real life.
You know, years and years ago the Bengals did crap like this and no one understood it. In fact, the year before they went to and went to their first Super Bowl, they mysteriously finished with a bad (losing) record in the NFL when their talent was MUCH better than their record. They then went out with the high draft picks they earned from that mysteriously poor finish and used them to fill the last couple of holes they had in their lineup. Then they went to the Super Bowl one year after consecutive seasons of 4-12, 4-12 and the mysteriously bad 6-10.
All I can imagine is that Dorsey is on that same path. He is putting together pieces for a run in either 2020 or, more likely, 2021. In the meantime, the goal is to lose as many games as possible to keep getting the top draft pick along with adding pieces who will mature into good players by that time.
Dorsey couldn't get players who were TOO good or they might have accounted for a win or two. He had to get guys who, while good players, wouldn't impact the team next year or even, in a large sense, the year after that. So how did he do this?
He overdrafted Mayfield and Ward. The really logical picks were Barkley and Chubb. These guys could have both impacted 2018 and probably would have been worth 2-3 wins between them in how they would have impacted this team's dynamics. But they would have gotten us less optimal draft picks and a record that, while better, was still like the Indians of the 80s: just bad enough to be terrible but not bad enough to get a GREAT draft slot.
So if I am running this draft I picked Barkley and Chubb.
But if I am Dorsey I draft Mayfield and Ward and allow Hue Jackson to again be so inept that he will certainly get us the first overall pick next year...when we really start drafting guys that make sense.
I never understood the phrase 'He really screwed the pooch on that one'. However, Dorsey did, indeed, screw the pooch or rather, all the pooches in the Dawg Pound with these two picks because anyone who buys season or even game tickets the next two years is just funding 2020/2021 while throwing away their hard earned money for 2018/2019.
Look, you can't come into a situation as bad as the Browns have had and do crap that is risky and doesn't make sense. I would have rather failed with Barkley and Chubb then done the unorthodox and drafted Mayfield and Ward. At least taking Barkley/Chubb makes sense from a team building perspective.
To me, Dorsey is another in a long line of losers in the front office of the Browns since they reincarnated in Cleveland. Thank heavens for LeBron and Francona because if we had to hang the sports prowess of Cleveland teams on Dorsey, Jackson and the Browns, we would still be the mistake by the lake!
[DISCLAIMER: I am writing this off the top of my head and my recollection of history may be a little skewed.]
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