Originally Posted by
mkocs6
I understand your point, but here is why I disagree in this particular case. If you watch the Browns closely and often (I assume you do not watch them any more than you have to, for which I don't blame you), you'll notice that our wide receivers can't get open against press coverage to save their souls. The Browns' passing game has gone through the tight ends and the backs since they traded Edwards in 2009 because none of their receivers can get open consistently. The lone exception to this has been Greg Little, which is a very recent development and who is a big guy and is learning to use his body to play the position, but he's still very young and this is only his second year as a receiver (he played RB in high school, was converted to WR in college, and sat out a year with a suspension, if you recall). All that said, I think Blackmon is an exceptional talent at wide receiver and will immediately draw double coverage on this team; I think he can beat it, too, but I think this will open up the rest of the offense. I agree that you can find talented playmakers outside the first round, but you need to get lucky--in my view, Blackmon presents an opportunity to improve production at every level on a woefully unproductive unit. You might make the same argument about Griffin, which I'll take on next.
I think there are a couple key differences between Griffin and Newton, some of which have been alluded to already. One obvious one is size and the other is the people around him. Griffin's line would be pretty decent in Cleveland (provided we clean up RT, we should have one of the more solid lines in the league with Thomas, Steinbach back from injury, Mack, Pinkston, and a new RT), but he wouldn't have anything close to Steve Smith. Perhaps in free agency they could add Robert Meachem, but convincing players with options to come to Cleveland is not easy. Finally, I would like to point out that Newton's offense in Carolina was Rob Chudzinski's, the former coordinator in Cleveland who has always relied on a vertical passing game, which is very different from the coordinator likely to be hired in Cleveland next season. This group is committed to the west coast--Holmgren probably is the closest link to Bill Walsh still in football--and Griffin didn't run anything like that at Baylor. So, unless Griffin grows four inches, we get a top-flight receiver, and ditch the offensive system we're using, I don't really see how Griffin-in-Cleveland and Newton-in-Carolina are comparable just yet.
This is why I think, if your goal with your first rounder is to improve the offense as a whole, you pick Blackmon over Griffin. I think you could bring in Flynn to challenge McCoy (or someone else, I suppose), but I'd like to see them bring in a playmaker, whether on offense or defense, and I vehemently oppose the idea of moving up from #4 or giving away future #1s or #2s in order to Griffin or Flynn. I'd be very happy with Blackmon or with a good corner (like Claiborne or Kirkpatrick) or with a good end (Coples, potentially, I guess). I'd even be okay with Griffin if he could be had in our current spot, I suppose, but indications are he won't fall to that place and frankly, it's never really been Holmgren's style to draft a first-round quarterback. I'd like to see them mostly add speed this draft (seriously, I think we might have the slowest defense in the NFL), at LB, CB, DE, and make finding an outside receiving option and a competent right tackle a priority. I get where you're coming from, but given the particular situation of the Browns, I don't think a pick like Griffin is the right one. You may correct that receivers won't be better than their quarterbacks, but it can work the other way, too, and I'm not convinced (yet, anyway, I guess) that RGIII is a once-in-a-lifetime talent I can't pass up at #4 (even though it's doubtful he'll be there in the first place), and I definitely don't want to move to take him.
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