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Cleveland Rising

By TheDarkHorse

Barry, thank you for being with us. These days, most people take a site like www.theobr.com for granted. But the site well-represents a shift in sports journalism. Your site’s stories have been lifted by the mainstream media. Did you ever think that might be the case when you started this whole thing?

It’s been an amazing journey, and proof that a website or any other media outlet will be just as good as the people writing for it. We’ve been particularly blessed there.

Back in the 90s, I certainly never thought we’d be at the point where we were battling toe-to-toe with some of the major players in this town for stories and opportunity. The website was started for fun, a sense of adventure, and the vague notion that appreciative readers would buy us beer. We didn’t have any big plan to replace any of Cleveland’s major media players.

In terms of how we’ve been treated by the mainstream media, it’s been a mixed bag. Like any group of people, you’ll have folks with great integrity and folks who lack any at all. You try to learn from the former and ignore the latter, although it can be frustrating or depressing at times.

The Browns have been through 20 years of turbulence. On bad days, the team feels like a franchise slowly rotting from the core out. Is Coach Mangini the one to turn things around? Does he get how much this could mean to the city and the league?

Mangini seems to understand how important this franchise is to Cleveland, and Randy Lerner certainly does. The team’s owner desperately wants the town to be proud of the team again.

The question with both isn’t whether or not they understand how important this is, but rather if they’re capable of making the right detailed decisions to get things back on track.

Mangini, for example, borrows his style from his mentors Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. The OBR’s Steve King did a neat article not too long ago, which compared Mangini’s arrival in Cleveland to that of Bill Belichick in the early 90s. (The article can be found here: http://cle.scout.com/2/847469.html) The parallels are eerie. But under their surface similarities, will Mangini make the right personnel decisions like Bill Parcells? Is he capable of developing a game plan as effectively as Belichick? On both questions, the results in New York were mixed and the jury remains out. If Mangini builds a winner here, he’s redeemed in the eyes of the NFL. If he doesn’t, Browns fans will suffer through another re-boot in three or four years time.

Along those lines, we’ve seen Winslow shipped south for picks… we’ve heard whispers that Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, and Braylon Edwards are all available for the right price. Is Mangini confident enough to start from scratch? And, if the team parts ways with its “stars,” would this roster reset be a surprise to Lerner?

We met and talked with Randy Lerner earlier this off-season, and the Browns owner is convinced that the most important decision he can make is to get the right coach. He believes that Bill Belichick was the key to the Patriots turnaround, and that Chuck Noll took the Steelers from perennial losers to one of the league’s top franchises. His instinct tells him he made the right choice in Mangini, and he’s going to let his coach do things how he feels they need to be done.

Based on our discussions, the notion that Lerner is insisting on the new group just tweaking around the edges of the roster doesn’t seem to bear out. If they think changing over a good chunk of the roster is needed, that’s what’s needed. He wants capable people running the franchise professionally. The owner is similar to the fans in wanting a winner soon, but he’ll give his coach the chance to build the team.

I don’t think that Mangini really wants to start from scratch. Guys like Joe Thomas, Shaun Rogers, and D’Qwell Jackson probably aren’t going anywhere. We’re not hearing talk like we did from Phil Savage when he arrived in Cleveland. I remember Savage telling the media that he asked himself “When will the varsity team arrive?” when looking at Butch Davis’ roster. We’re not hearing that now. Mangini and Kokinis are acting like they feel they have more to work with.

Beyond that, the front office wants to build this team through the draft. If dealing off talented but imperfect players like Quinn, DA, and Edwards lets them do that, they’ll sure talk about it. But they aren’t pushing these players out the door like Phil Savage did with Gerard Warren, for example. They’ll deal them for picks if the offer is right and if they think on balance it will improve the club.

Are Browns fans any different than other fans around the league?

No doubt about it. Northeast Ohio is the cradle of football, and the team’s history through the 1960s is without peer in the NFL. The team’s legacy, the town, our love of football has created a unique and dedicated fan base. I remember in the 1970s and 1980s when it sometimes seemed like football was one of Cleveland’s few sources of pride, how even when the city was the butt of jokes that Bernie Kosar would still do everything he could to come here to play for the Browns.

That’s a lot to live up to. There are very few fans that compare to Browns fans, both in their intensity and the loyalty they display even if they’ve relocated out of the city. The Browns Backers groups spread out all over the planet are amazing.

It’s interesting hearing the local media literally begging fans to turn their backs on the Browns and focus on the city’s other teams. After 20 years of frustration and Modell’s sickening betrayal, it’s still impossible to take a crowbar and pry fans away from this team. The hard-core fans who hang out at the OBR may get frustrated at times, but most of us are lifers. We’ll never walk away, no matter how tough it gets. That loyalty and dedication is what sets Browns fans apart. It’s in our DNA. Browns fans are fans for life.

Derek Anderson was a human car-crash in 2008. Brady Quinn seems like a prototype NFL quarterback on a team with few, if any, stars. Why put the team through another terribly lame quarterback derby?

Why indeed? I think the “school solution” is to give Brady Quinn a chance to succeed or fail with a full year to operate as the team’s starter, and I suspect that’s exactly what will happen even if both quarterbacks remain on the team. At present, however, the Browns front office doesn’t want to do anything to diminish the value of two trade-worthy commodities, so they won’t stand up in front of the media and declare that one of them is the backup. At this point, it’s more about negotiating strategy than really talking about who is going to start.

Don’t be too incredibly shocked if the team goes in another direction entirely if the right opportunity presents itself. I believe that the team’s front office looks on both the quarterbacks as having weaknesses as well as strengths. They would be perfectly willing to bring in someone else if they feel that they could get the “complete package” at the game’s most important position, either in this year’s draft or next.

We hear a lot about Brady Quinn’s lack of arm strength. Is that what makes him expendable in the eyes of this coaching staff, if he is?

I’m convinced that Quinn is only “expendable” if a better option in the eyes of the coaching staff presents itself. He’s not getting rushed out the door, but they’ll listen to offers. But, yes, it’s primarily arm strength which we believe is a concern. Perhaps one major difference between Charlie Weis and those following in his footsteps is that the latter tend to more concerned with the vertical game, and they’re concerned about Quinn’s ability there. That’s why the Broncos didn’t fall all over themselves to get Quinn and why Daboll would let him go, but only for the right price or if a “complete” QB fell into their laps.

Where will Donte Stallworth be come September? Is he the most star-crossed free agent signing since the team’s return in 1999?

It’s certainly the most tragic story, because an innocent man lost his life.

I’d say that LeCharles Bentley’s situation was the most damaging to the Browns as a team, since he was intended to be the lynchpin of Phil Savage’s efforts to rebuild the roster. You could feel the hopes of Browns fans being crushed when that story went up on the first day of training camp. Chris Spielman, of course, was a similar story back in 1999. The Bentley story will always stick with me as the worst moment of the expansion era.

Fan and media reaction to Stallworth’s problems were a bit more muted because people were already cynical about what he could contribute. I don’t think we’ll see Stallworth in a Browns uniform ever again, That’s just a hunch, since I’m not a lawyer, and Stallworth’s fate is in the hands of the legal system now.

With a gun to your head (held by John Elway), (a) Where do the Browns end up picking in the first round? (b) What player(s) highlight their draft, and (c) Will any notable Browns be jettisoned by the end of draft weekend?

The notion of an armed John Elway is almost enough for me to consider becoming a gun control activist, but my guess today would be that Browns will wind up getting stuck at #5. They want to trade out of it, but it’s not a great place to be in this year’s draft, and other NFL teams know it. The team’s best chance of trading down or getting good value is if the two quarterbacks or Aaron Curry aren’t snapped up in the first four picks. I fear that KC grabs Curry and Detroit and Seattle may grab the QBs, or trade to a team that wants a quarterback, in Seattle’s case. My take is that if you’re a Browns fan, you should be rooting for some of the offensive tackles or a player like Michael Crabtree to wind up at the top of the draft boards.

Lane Adkins was the first to report the team’s intention to acquire a large number of first-day draft picks, which may involve trade-downs and dealing off existing players, and alongside Giants Insider, we broke the Edwards trade story. John Taylor told fans early this off-season that buzz about dealing K2 wouldn’t die. So, that’s the general direction where we think they want to head. There aren’t many players who wouldn’t be dealt if the front office felt, on balance, that the picks could help to rebuild the team.

Anything’s possible on Draft Day, as we’ve seen in the past, so being in the prediction business is a dicey proposition. The unpredictability is one of the things that makes it so much fun, like Christmas morning for grown-ups.

Will the Browns win the Super Bowl in your lifetime?

About ten years ago, I would have said “without a doubt”. Nowadays my answer is that “it depends on how long I live”. If you’re going to be a Browns fan, get in it for the long-haul and have a lot of patience. A long life span would help.

The fact that the answer is in doubt is probably a good indication that I should turn off the computer, go outside, and get some exercise