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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/03/06/myles-garrett-combine-cleveland-browns-nfl-draft
Myles Garrett and the Browns’ Difficult Decision
The top draft prospect put on a show in Indianapolis, making the No. 1 choice pretty easy—or that much harder. Here’s a look at the Cleveland dilemma
by Albert Breer
Photo: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
INDIANAPOLIS — “Hello, Cleveland!”
Those were the words of NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock as Texas A&M phenom Myles Garrett crossed the finish line of the 40-yard dash in a staggering 4.64 seconds on Sunday, putting a bow on the show that most scouts expected he’d put on here at Lucas Oil Stadium. And that run by Garrett, who weighs 272 pounds, only punctuated what everyone knew when we arrived in Indy: Garrett is the odds-on favorite to go first overall.
“He’s good,” texted an AFC exec from the stands, “like everyone knows.”
“Lol. How about him?” texted one AFC area scout assigned to A&M. “Special.”
How special? If Cleveland takes Garrett first overall, he’ll be the third edge rusher in the past 15 years to top the draft. Here’s how he stacks up, athletically, against the other two.
Myles Garrett, Texas A&M, 2017
6'4", 272 lbs.; 40: 4.64; Vertical: 41"; Broad jump: 10'8"; Bench: 33 reps.
Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina, 2014
6'5", 266 lbs., 40: 4.53; Vertical: 37.5"; Broad jump: 10'4"; Bench: 21 reps.
Mario Williams, N.C. State, 2006
6'7", 295 lbs.; 40: 4.73; Vertical: 40.5"; Broad jump: 10'0"; Bench: 35 reps.
In short, on Sunday at the NFL scouting combine, Garrett confirmed that he belongs with the freakiest of pro football’s athletes. (Good luck to a historically strong defensive back group that takes the FieldTurf today in trying to top what we saw from Garrett.)
And Garrett didn’t make the April 27 decision for the Browns any simpler. The reality is that the history of taking a pass-rusher first overall is just so-so (you can go back to Cleveland’s Courtney Brown in 2000 for more evidence), and the Browns haven’t had a real long-term answer at the most important position on the field since local folk hero Bernie Kosar led the team in the ’80s.
Big call? Yeah, probably the biggest one in an offseason full of those for the Browns.
Work on the first pick “is gonna be extremely detailed,” Cleveland coach Hue Jackson said over his cellphone Saturday, between workouts and interviews. “We’re slowly starting into the process. You work through the Senior Bowl, you work through the combine, next thing that will come up will be private workouts, pro days, your top 30 visits. Then you have to take all that information and start into making decisions.
“We’re just starting into it; there’ll be so much more.”
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/03/05/...es-garrett-cleveland-browns-no-1-overall-pick
Myles Garrett’s Combine: ‘He Looked Like Wolverine’
If there was any doubt that Myles Garrett was the draft's best prospect, there isn't now after the Texas A&M edge rusher put together a combine performance for the ages.
by Robert Klemko
INDIANAPOLIS — Ask any NFL talent evaluator entering the combine, and they would’ve told you it would be impossible for the league’s collective opinion of Myles Garrett to get any higher. In a class devoid of a safe QB1, Garrett arrived in Indianapolis as the biggest show in town.
Somehow, he got bigger.
“I don’t have a player comparison for what I just saw. He looked like Wolverine,” says one defensive coordinator. “Assuming the medical is good and he doesn’t tell the Browns he wants to be a Cowboy when they interview him, he’s it.”
Photo: David J. Phillip/AP
Garrett was the runaway star of a combine that saw Chris Johnson’s 40-yard dash record fall to Washington receiver John Ross. Garrett’s 4.6 forty, at 272 pounds, brought back memories of Jadeveon Clowney, who not long ago was considered a once-in-a-generation talent here. Make that twice in a generation.
* * *
Since the boss, Peter King, spent the weekend in Boston (where I live, and where the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was) and not here (where I am), I’m taking the reins for today’s column. And we’re going to get you more on how the quarterbacks here did, Jaylon Smith’s drop foot, the strange case of Reuben Foster and the Patriots’ championship ride, with plenty of draft and free agency nuggets as well.
But we’ll start right there with Garrett, and Cleveland, and the global picture of what’s ahead for an embattled Browns franchise.
If the current regime gets this once proud franchise back to respectability, the moves GM Sashi Brown, Jackson and company make over the next six months figure to be a gigantic part of it. Cleveland has 11 picks in April’s draft, five in the first 65 selections and 10 in the first five rounds. The Browns have more than $100 million in cap space, and only one big free agent (Terrelle Pryor) to re-sign.
“It’s very exciting. But it’s pressure-packed too,” Jackson said. “You gotta get it right, because these are opportunities to take this organization in a whole new direction. So the thought of doing it the right way, doing it right all together, it’s on all of our minds. We want to get this right. We know this could catapult us into the future, and we have a lot of different ways to have success. “
Now, here’s the unspoken truth about the most interesting offseason confronting any team in the NFL: The analytically-driven approach that drove the accumulation of all those assets now must give way to something as simple and old as the league itself.
The Browns need to go get better players. The good news? As Jackson said, the Browns have plenty of different ways to get that done. In fact, I’m not sure there’s ever been a team that’s entered an offseason quote like this…
• Roster: The Browns currently list 74 players on their roster. More than half of them—40!—have either one accrued NFL season or none. There are just 10 players who have been in the league for more than four seasons.
• Cap space: No one in league history has had so much room. The Browns figure to enter the league year, depending on what happens with Pryor, with about $102 million to spend. The entire salary cap in 2006: $102 million. As recently as 2013, the cap was just $123 million.
• Draft picks: two first-rounders (1, 12), two second-rounders (33, 52), one third-rounder (65), two fourth-rounders (108, 142), three fifth-rounders (145, 177, 183), one sixth-rounder (187). Business Insider ran the numbers: By the old Jimmy Johnson draft-value chart, the Browns picks add up to 4,145 points. The 49ers have the second most draft capital this year behind Cleveland. They’re at 2,656 points.
It’s pretty simple. The Browns have to come out of this offseason with some valuable concrete as Jackson, Brown, vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta try to lay a championship foundation.
All eyes are where they always are in the NFL: Under center. So that was Question No. 1 for Jackson: Do you have to come out of this offseason with your long-term quarterback?
“We hope to,” Jackson said. “We go into it looking to solve that. We all know until we have our quarterback, the guy that we want on our team [long-term], it’s hard to move forward. Now, that said, we’re not sure that guy is not on our team yet. I’m not trying to discount the guys that are on the team. You’re just always looking to improve everywhere that you can. We’re going to search high and low.”
That search has already begun.
The background work on the veteran market is just about complete. “Every quarterback who has potential to be a free agent or someone that could be traded, I’ve watched everything they’ve done,” Jackson says. He can’t say the names, per league rules. But you can guess them. Jimmy Garoppolo. AJ McCarron. Mike Glennon. Tyrod Taylor. And probably a few more.
The work on the college kids is underway, but not nearly complete. Jackson came to the combine having watched five or six full games from each of the top half-dozen or so college signal-callers, and the team spent the last few days interviewing them and watching them work out.
“It’s a very intriguing group,” Jackson said. “You have a guy who’s won a national championship, you have a guy who hasn’t played a ton of football, you have guys who have played a ton of football, you have guys who can throw the ball all across the field, you have guys with football IQ through the roof. You have guys with a lot of different skill sets. You gotta make sure that you dig through it all.
“We just gotta spend more time with them. It’s not just the tape. You’ve had a 15-minute conversation with most of them in a meting room. That’s not enough time.”
By the time April rolls around, Jackson says he’ll have watched every snap played by all the top draft-eligible quarterbacks, and give his input to his front-office colleagues. “I hope they lean on my expertise at the position as we get closer to making a decision about the position,” he says. “But we’re doing this thing collaboratively.”
Like everyone else, Jackson was impressed with what he saw from Garrett on Sunday. And though neither he nor anyone else in Cleveland came out and said it, it sure looks like it’s Garrett vs. the quarterbacks for the first overall pick, with guys like Alabama defensive linemen Jonathan Allen and Stanford pass rusher Solomon Thomas as dark horses.
And that’s one of a few dozen decisions the Browns know they have to get right over the next two months. It’s not overstating the situation to say the future of the team’s current brass rides of it.
“Where we go, where we’re headed, this offseason is such a huge piece,” Jackson said. “We’re all thinking it, from top to the bottom, everyone’s focused on getting this right. … It’ll determine what we all achieve in the future, whether we win, and win consistently. And the only way to do that, you have to have great players.”
* * *
No Clarity in the QB Derby
After spending a week in Indianapolis, and four days last month in Mobile, I’d tell you there are five quarterbacks with a shot at going in the first round—Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer, Texas Tech’s Pat Mahomes, North Carolina’s Mitchell Trubisky, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, and Cal’s Davis Webb.
In what order, I don’t know. And I don’t think NFL teams have that figured out yet, either. But some themes to the class have emerged.
“First off, what stands out, I think there’s only one guy that’s ever taken a snap from under center,” Chiefs GM John Dorsey told me. “How about that one? It shows how we’re evolving into a spread-option era. Then, what you have to analyze is can they spit out a play in the huddle? If you look at the majority of these guys, everybody’s signaling everything in from the sideline.
“These are the types of things people are looking for as they sit and talk to these players. Can they sit and regurgitate an offensive play? That’s hard to do, especially in [our] system, it’s really hard to do. But on the whole they’re a more athletic group.
“Are there any finished products here? I don’t think so. So where are the warts, and are you willing to live with the warts? That’s what people are asking.”
I then asked Dorsey if he thought any of the quarterbacks are ready to play. He smiled and said, “Me personally?” Then a long pause, another smile, and a “No.”
Again, that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty to like with the group, and more to dissect. So I asked one AFC personnel director to break down for me what he saw from the quarterbacks. He missed Webb but got the other four. Here are his notes, with the caveat he wanted to emphasize—these guys are throwing different routes to receivers they don’t know …
• Kizer: Big, strong, good arm and velocity. Smooth release. Inconsistent feet, timing and accuracy. Had the same misses on multiple reps.
• Mahomes: Tight release, but thought he would be more consistent and better throwing deep.
• Trubisky: Athletic, good arm strength. Some inconsistency in accuracy and timing and deep ball.
• Watson: Very consistent, athletic. Easy motion. Easy ball to catch.
A winner for the week? It was Watson. He blew teams away in interviews to the point where I know a couple clubs that weren’t wild about him were eager to go back and take a second look at the tape to see if they missed on their evaluation. And his field work was very good.
I wrote last month that Trubisky was the leader to be the first quarterback taken, and I still think that’s probably the likelihood. But Watson has gained some ground.
* * *
“He has elite versatility. The guy could’ve started for us at receiver. He’s one of those guys who can do so many things, and in a league that—especially with what New England and all of them do—really puts a premium on versatility. I mean, there’s nobody out there better. And he’s still getting better and better all the time.
He missed his entire first year, so there were some things developmentwise. He was just really getting better quickly. And he still has a long ways to go. … Yeah, he has special ability, but his versatility sets him apart. He can get you the tough yard in the I, he can play on third down, you can put him out at receiver. He threw a touchdown pass this year. He can literally do just about anything.”
—Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley on Joe Mixon.
This is a leftover from last week’s Game Plan lead on Mixon, and explains why Mixon will be drafted, and maybe before Day 2 is done. Ezekiel Elliott’s value last year was that he was built like a big back but had skills of a smaller runner. Mixon isn’t Elliott, but he is that way too. His pro day is Wednesday. He told me he hopes to post a 4.39 in the 40-yard dash.
**********************************************************************
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/03/06/myles-garrett-combine-cleveland-browns-nfl-draft
Myles Garrett and the Browns’ Difficult Decision
The top draft prospect put on a show in Indianapolis, making the No. 1 choice pretty easy—or that much harder. Here’s a look at the Cleveland dilemma
by Albert Breer
Photo: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
INDIANAPOLIS — “Hello, Cleveland!”
Those were the words of NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock as Texas A&M phenom Myles Garrett crossed the finish line of the 40-yard dash in a staggering 4.64 seconds on Sunday, putting a bow on the show that most scouts expected he’d put on here at Lucas Oil Stadium. And that run by Garrett, who weighs 272 pounds, only punctuated what everyone knew when we arrived in Indy: Garrett is the odds-on favorite to go first overall.
“He’s good,” texted an AFC exec from the stands, “like everyone knows.”
“Lol. How about him?” texted one AFC area scout assigned to A&M. “Special.”
How special? If Cleveland takes Garrett first overall, he’ll be the third edge rusher in the past 15 years to top the draft. Here’s how he stacks up, athletically, against the other two.
Myles Garrett, Texas A&M, 2017
6'4", 272 lbs.; 40: 4.64; Vertical: 41"; Broad jump: 10'8"; Bench: 33 reps.
Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina, 2014
6'5", 266 lbs., 40: 4.53; Vertical: 37.5"; Broad jump: 10'4"; Bench: 21 reps.
Mario Williams, N.C. State, 2006
6'7", 295 lbs.; 40: 4.73; Vertical: 40.5"; Broad jump: 10'0"; Bench: 35 reps.
In short, on Sunday at the NFL scouting combine, Garrett confirmed that he belongs with the freakiest of pro football’s athletes. (Good luck to a historically strong defensive back group that takes the FieldTurf today in trying to top what we saw from Garrett.)
And Garrett didn’t make the April 27 decision for the Browns any simpler. The reality is that the history of taking a pass-rusher first overall is just so-so (you can go back to Cleveland’s Courtney Brown in 2000 for more evidence), and the Browns haven’t had a real long-term answer at the most important position on the field since local folk hero Bernie Kosar led the team in the ’80s.
Big call? Yeah, probably the biggest one in an offseason full of those for the Browns.
Work on the first pick “is gonna be extremely detailed,” Cleveland coach Hue Jackson said over his cellphone Saturday, between workouts and interviews. “We’re slowly starting into the process. You work through the Senior Bowl, you work through the combine, next thing that will come up will be private workouts, pro days, your top 30 visits. Then you have to take all that information and start into making decisions.
“We’re just starting into it; there’ll be so much more.”
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/03/05/...es-garrett-cleveland-browns-no-1-overall-pick
Myles Garrett’s Combine: ‘He Looked Like Wolverine’
If there was any doubt that Myles Garrett was the draft's best prospect, there isn't now after the Texas A&M edge rusher put together a combine performance for the ages.
by Robert Klemko
INDIANAPOLIS — Ask any NFL talent evaluator entering the combine, and they would’ve told you it would be impossible for the league’s collective opinion of Myles Garrett to get any higher. In a class devoid of a safe QB1, Garrett arrived in Indianapolis as the biggest show in town.
Somehow, he got bigger.
“I don’t have a player comparison for what I just saw. He looked like Wolverine,” says one defensive coordinator. “Assuming the medical is good and he doesn’t tell the Browns he wants to be a Cowboy when they interview him, he’s it.”
Photo: David J. Phillip/AP
Garrett was the runaway star of a combine that saw Chris Johnson’s 40-yard dash record fall to Washington receiver John Ross. Garrett’s 4.6 forty, at 272 pounds, brought back memories of Jadeveon Clowney, who not long ago was considered a once-in-a-generation talent here. Make that twice in a generation.
* * *
Since the boss, Peter King, spent the weekend in Boston (where I live, and where the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was) and not here (where I am), I’m taking the reins for today’s column. And we’re going to get you more on how the quarterbacks here did, Jaylon Smith’s drop foot, the strange case of Reuben Foster and the Patriots’ championship ride, with plenty of draft and free agency nuggets as well.
But we’ll start right there with Garrett, and Cleveland, and the global picture of what’s ahead for an embattled Browns franchise.
If the current regime gets this once proud franchise back to respectability, the moves GM Sashi Brown, Jackson and company make over the next six months figure to be a gigantic part of it. Cleveland has 11 picks in April’s draft, five in the first 65 selections and 10 in the first five rounds. The Browns have more than $100 million in cap space, and only one big free agent (Terrelle Pryor) to re-sign.
“It’s very exciting. But it’s pressure-packed too,” Jackson said. “You gotta get it right, because these are opportunities to take this organization in a whole new direction. So the thought of doing it the right way, doing it right all together, it’s on all of our minds. We want to get this right. We know this could catapult us into the future, and we have a lot of different ways to have success. “
Now, here’s the unspoken truth about the most interesting offseason confronting any team in the NFL: The analytically-driven approach that drove the accumulation of all those assets now must give way to something as simple and old as the league itself.
The Browns need to go get better players. The good news? As Jackson said, the Browns have plenty of different ways to get that done. In fact, I’m not sure there’s ever been a team that’s entered an offseason quote like this…
• Roster: The Browns currently list 74 players on their roster. More than half of them—40!—have either one accrued NFL season or none. There are just 10 players who have been in the league for more than four seasons.
• Cap space: No one in league history has had so much room. The Browns figure to enter the league year, depending on what happens with Pryor, with about $102 million to spend. The entire salary cap in 2006: $102 million. As recently as 2013, the cap was just $123 million.
• Draft picks: two first-rounders (1, 12), two second-rounders (33, 52), one third-rounder (65), two fourth-rounders (108, 142), three fifth-rounders (145, 177, 183), one sixth-rounder (187). Business Insider ran the numbers: By the old Jimmy Johnson draft-value chart, the Browns picks add up to 4,145 points. The 49ers have the second most draft capital this year behind Cleveland. They’re at 2,656 points.
It’s pretty simple. The Browns have to come out of this offseason with some valuable concrete as Jackson, Brown, vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta try to lay a championship foundation.
All eyes are where they always are in the NFL: Under center. So that was Question No. 1 for Jackson: Do you have to come out of this offseason with your long-term quarterback?
“We hope to,” Jackson said. “We go into it looking to solve that. We all know until we have our quarterback, the guy that we want on our team [long-term], it’s hard to move forward. Now, that said, we’re not sure that guy is not on our team yet. I’m not trying to discount the guys that are on the team. You’re just always looking to improve everywhere that you can. We’re going to search high and low.”
That search has already begun.
The background work on the veteran market is just about complete. “Every quarterback who has potential to be a free agent or someone that could be traded, I’ve watched everything they’ve done,” Jackson says. He can’t say the names, per league rules. But you can guess them. Jimmy Garoppolo. AJ McCarron. Mike Glennon. Tyrod Taylor. And probably a few more.
The work on the college kids is underway, but not nearly complete. Jackson came to the combine having watched five or six full games from each of the top half-dozen or so college signal-callers, and the team spent the last few days interviewing them and watching them work out.
“It’s a very intriguing group,” Jackson said. “You have a guy who’s won a national championship, you have a guy who hasn’t played a ton of football, you have guys who have played a ton of football, you have guys who can throw the ball all across the field, you have guys with football IQ through the roof. You have guys with a lot of different skill sets. You gotta make sure that you dig through it all.
“We just gotta spend more time with them. It’s not just the tape. You’ve had a 15-minute conversation with most of them in a meting room. That’s not enough time.”
By the time April rolls around, Jackson says he’ll have watched every snap played by all the top draft-eligible quarterbacks, and give his input to his front-office colleagues. “I hope they lean on my expertise at the position as we get closer to making a decision about the position,” he says. “But we’re doing this thing collaboratively.”
Like everyone else, Jackson was impressed with what he saw from Garrett on Sunday. And though neither he nor anyone else in Cleveland came out and said it, it sure looks like it’s Garrett vs. the quarterbacks for the first overall pick, with guys like Alabama defensive linemen Jonathan Allen and Stanford pass rusher Solomon Thomas as dark horses.
And that’s one of a few dozen decisions the Browns know they have to get right over the next two months. It’s not overstating the situation to say the future of the team’s current brass rides of it.
“Where we go, where we’re headed, this offseason is such a huge piece,” Jackson said. “We’re all thinking it, from top to the bottom, everyone’s focused on getting this right. … It’ll determine what we all achieve in the future, whether we win, and win consistently. And the only way to do that, you have to have great players.”
* * *
No Clarity in the QB Derby
After spending a week in Indianapolis, and four days last month in Mobile, I’d tell you there are five quarterbacks with a shot at going in the first round—Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer, Texas Tech’s Pat Mahomes, North Carolina’s Mitchell Trubisky, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, and Cal’s Davis Webb.
In what order, I don’t know. And I don’t think NFL teams have that figured out yet, either. But some themes to the class have emerged.
“First off, what stands out, I think there’s only one guy that’s ever taken a snap from under center,” Chiefs GM John Dorsey told me. “How about that one? It shows how we’re evolving into a spread-option era. Then, what you have to analyze is can they spit out a play in the huddle? If you look at the majority of these guys, everybody’s signaling everything in from the sideline.
“These are the types of things people are looking for as they sit and talk to these players. Can they sit and regurgitate an offensive play? That’s hard to do, especially in [our] system, it’s really hard to do. But on the whole they’re a more athletic group.
“Are there any finished products here? I don’t think so. So where are the warts, and are you willing to live with the warts? That’s what people are asking.”
I then asked Dorsey if he thought any of the quarterbacks are ready to play. He smiled and said, “Me personally?” Then a long pause, another smile, and a “No.”
Again, that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty to like with the group, and more to dissect. So I asked one AFC personnel director to break down for me what he saw from the quarterbacks. He missed Webb but got the other four. Here are his notes, with the caveat he wanted to emphasize—these guys are throwing different routes to receivers they don’t know …
• Kizer: Big, strong, good arm and velocity. Smooth release. Inconsistent feet, timing and accuracy. Had the same misses on multiple reps.
• Mahomes: Tight release, but thought he would be more consistent and better throwing deep.
• Trubisky: Athletic, good arm strength. Some inconsistency in accuracy and timing and deep ball.
• Watson: Very consistent, athletic. Easy motion. Easy ball to catch.
A winner for the week? It was Watson. He blew teams away in interviews to the point where I know a couple clubs that weren’t wild about him were eager to go back and take a second look at the tape to see if they missed on their evaluation. And his field work was very good.
I wrote last month that Trubisky was the leader to be the first quarterback taken, and I still think that’s probably the likelihood. But Watson has gained some ground.
* * *
“He has elite versatility. The guy could’ve started for us at receiver. He’s one of those guys who can do so many things, and in a league that—especially with what New England and all of them do—really puts a premium on versatility. I mean, there’s nobody out there better. And he’s still getting better and better all the time.
He missed his entire first year, so there were some things developmentwise. He was just really getting better quickly. And he still has a long ways to go. … Yeah, he has special ability, but his versatility sets him apart. He can get you the tough yard in the I, he can play on third down, you can put him out at receiver. He threw a touchdown pass this year. He can literally do just about anything.”
—Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley on Joe Mixon.
This is a leftover from last week’s Game Plan lead on Mixon, and explains why Mixon will be drafted, and maybe before Day 2 is done. Ezekiel Elliott’s value last year was that he was built like a big back but had skills of a smaller runner. Mixon isn’t Elliott, but he is that way too. His pro day is Wednesday. He told me he hopes to post a 4.39 in the 40-yard dash.
