So Cleveland might want to make a deal?

Today on NFL Full Access Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer gave us the State of the Franchise on the Cleveland Browns. She said a number of things that should interest the Rams.

Specifically, Mike Holmgren is not done overhauling the QB position in Cleveland. Mary Kay asked him directly if he would use the #7 pick to select Sam Bradford or Clausen. He said he would absolutely consider using the #7 pick on a QB. She asked him if he would trade up to select Sam Bradford or Jimmy Clausen. Holmgren said is definitely considering a trade. When pressed a little further, Holmgren stated he likes Sam Bradford a hell of a lot. No comment on Clausen. Mary Kay Cabot declared that she believes that the Browns have stockpiled picks so that they have the ammo to make such a trade on draft day.

Setting aside the Rams' goals and objectives, and considering this from the Browns' viewpoint only, this makes a lot of sense. Right now, Cleveland a veteran QB who really cannot play anymore. Yet he is a tremendous guy, and he would make a nice mentor/wet-nurse for an excellent rookie QB. The Browns also have a deep third stringer who knows your offense. The former moves make sense if you get Sam Bradford.

How can Cleveland select Bradford when they select #7? Rod Woodson declared what should be obvious to all: If Holmgren wants Bradford, he has to trade up to #1. The risk of the Rams selecting him is too great, if you are Holmgren. You know my position on this subject, but I sense that the organization's mindset has been turning since the results of the Wonderlic were released. Bill Devaney talked draft for two hours with the fans this very night at J Bucks in Clayton. Early leaks from the meet-n-greet indicate that he said nice things about Bradford.

Fans can have distorted and selective hearing. I wish we had audio tape. Before we assume that Ram fans are crying out for Bradford, I should state that most of the Ram fans I am talking to are crying out for Ndamukong Suh. Regrettably, I don't sense a strong vote for Suh inside the org. Rumor has it that coach Spags prefers McCoy. Before we shoot coach Spags, we should recognize that he knows a lot about defensive linemen. If we don't select Bradford, it will probably be Gerald McCoy. Most Ram fans will choke on that one, if it comes to pass.

Should we make a deal with the Browns? Not unless we stick a gun in their ribs and make them pay a premium. I would even be inclined to select Bradford and see if Holmgren can stand the temptation of us dangling Sam in front of his face. The problem is that Cleveland doesn't really have a lot to give us. They have #7 in the 1st. They have the #6 in the 2nd. They have 3 picks in the 3rd. Unless we get a 1-2-3 for swapping down with them, I would not do it. Isn't that a little steep? I said I want to stick a gun in their ribs.

What if we get the #7? What should we do with it? There are two names on my list Trent Williams OT Oklahoma, and Dez Bryant WR Oklahoma State. Either might be available at #7. Both would fill tremendous, dire needs.

What do we do if we get Cleveland's #6 pick in the 2nd round. This is quite conditional upon what Tim Tebow does tomorrow at Florida's ProDay. Many if not all experts seem settled on the notion that Tebow will be going in the 3rd round. Many think he should go later, but he won't. If this consensus continues up to draft day, we might be able to use both 2nd rounders to get help we need. Maurkice Pouncy of Florida looks damn good to me. Many think he will slide to #33.

What do with pick #39? if Tebow's going to go in the 3rd, we have the luxury of dealing that pick for Vick, or using it for another player. I would prefer not to give it to Philly. Who then would I draft? Of course, you could go after Colt McCoy. According to CBS Sport's Draft Central, there is a certain fellow from Cal Berkeley named Javid Best who is ranked at exactly #39. I find it difficult to believe Javid will fall to #39. I believe somebody will reach for him in the 1st, because that ranking is clearly low. However, if Javid were to fall to us at #39, we would be stupid not to take him. This is one dude with a clear shot at replacing Marshall Faulk in our lineup.

What do we do in the 3rd? You know what I would do with the first pick. How about the second? This the Dexter McCluster point for me.

How about the 4th? There is a guard from Alabama I covet named Mike Johnson. Some have him in the 3rd round. Some have him in the 4th. If he is there, I would take him with our own pick in the 4th round.

The end product of this draft pattern would look like this:

1. #7 Dez Bryant WR Oklahoma State.
2. #33 Maurkice Pounce C/G Florida
3. #39 Javid Best RB Cal Berkeley
4. #65 Tim Tebow QB Florida
5. #71 Dexter McCluster RB/WR Ole Miss
6. #97 Mike Johnson OG Alabama

It would take some luck to line up that draft. There are assumptions that everybody on that list slides a bit. There are reasons to believe they will. Centers and guards are not valued well in the draft. Even Jamie Dukes, who played center, says he doesn't like selecting them in the 1st round. Javid Best may be overlooked because of his injury. Tebow is getting raped by the press. McCuster is labeled as small and slow. Nobody even knows who Mike Johnson is... except me and his family members.

If we could nail that draft, we could fix almost everything that is wrong with our offense. We would have playmakers all over the place. Adding Dez Bryant and Dexter McCluster to our receiver corp would give us some threatening weapons. Javid Best is the serious lightning compared to Steve Jackson's thunder. We would still need a veteran QB to take us through 2010. This is why I would trade a conditional pick in 2011 for Michael Vick, after the 2010 draft.

Anyhow... this is all just theory. There is no guarantee that there will be a trade.

So Vick is coming to the Rams...?

Bouy... the once proud Yahoo! Sports section is really circling the drain now. According to unnamed and sundry sources inside some Fantasy Football league, the Eagles are planning to deal Vick to the Rams.

According to these 'sources', Jason La Canfora is biting on a piece of trickeration. The Eagles will deal Vick, and the Rams are the leading contenders to acquire Vick's services via trade. This is because Billy Devaney was in Atlanta during the time Vick was QB there, and Spagnuolo was a defensive assistant to Jimmy Johnson for years. Allegedly, this means he can mine Andy Reid's mind for useful nuggets about Vick.

All this proves that a deal is going down. Yep...

When Adam Schefter and Jason La Canfora report the deal is in the works, I will believe it. When Yahoo! sites fanboys who have yet to move out of their mother's basement, I just can't believe the reports. Further, I am astounded that Yahoo! sports would report a story with this kind of credibility gap in the sources.

Denver is the new Wallstreet. The Broncos the new AIG.

The Denver Broncos are experiencing a meltdown of epic proportions. If there were any chance of them being sold in pieces to the rest of league, I would say that the Denver Broncos rivals AIG as the most dysfunctional corporation in the nation. Since there is no chance of the Broncos folding or being dismembered, I just can't make the AIG comparison... as much as I would like too.

Jaygate: just what the fuck happened?

A few weeks ago, FAF (Free Agency Friday) hit, and the New England Patriots traded Matt Castle to the Kansas City Chiefs. Looked fine on paper. Then all of sudden there is all this gossip circulating around the league from sources inside the Vikings', Chiefs', and Lions' headquarters that the Broncos were shopping Jay Cutler around, trying to trade him out of the Conference and Division. Why? To acquire draft picks. Why? Some of these picks were to be used to acquire Matt Castle, formerly of New England. Some were to be used to rebuilt Denver's sagging defense.

The deal never happened. Why?

Rumor has it that the Broncos were demanding too much of the Lions, who would have loved to build around Culter. Both parties would have liked to do the trade. They just couldn't agree to terms. More specifically, the Broncos wanted both of the Lions' 1st round picks, but eventually fell back to the #1 pick overall, and the 2nd round pick. Neither package was acceptible to the Lions. They felt the first overall pick was more than sufficient gold to seal the deal. Denver did not feel the #1 pick in the draft was good enough for Cutler. Then the Patriots completed their trade with the Chiefs, terminating the affair.

When this deal fell through, the Broncos became increasingly desperate, contacting the Vikings first, and then the Chiefs. This is the first clear-cut sign that the organization knew it had fucked up, and the relationship with Cutler was compromised.

Then the leaks started to flow. Sources inside the Broncos organization--loyal to Cutler--told Jay that the organization had been shopping him around, and trying to acquire Matt Castle. Jay Cutler, known for his passionate temper, hit the fucking roof. Rumor has it that he and his agent had a number of red-hot phone conversations with Pat Bowlen & McDaniels.

This is where the fun begins. Bowlen & McDaniels denied everything. They claimed the Chiefs & Lions contacted them with offers, inquiring if Cutler would be available if the price is right. Bowlen & McDaniels insisted that they told all would-be-bidders to fuck off. Cutler was never on the market, period.

That would have been fine except for the fact that Vikings, Lions, Patriots and Chiefs all broke THE MAN CODE. They confirmed Denver's infidelity to Cutler. They each confirmed that they had been contacted by the Broncos FIRST. None of them ever expected Cutler to be on the block. The whole affair might have died with a well-placed lie. Alas, such was not to be. That was when Cutler really got pissed. First, Bowlen fires his coach and mentor Mike Shanahan, then McDaniels give him a vote of no-confidence by trying to deal him, then they both lie to his face and try to cover it up.

Jay is now declaring that his days in Denver are over. His relationship with the Broncos is irrepairably busted, and he wants to be traded.

So who is right in all this?

I think I speak for the majority of NFL fans--not Bronco fans--when I say that I am absolutely flabbergasted by what has happened in Denver lately. This is almost inconceivable. If a gypsy woman had stared into a Crystal Ball and prophesied this, I would have laughed like hell at her and declared her a fraud.

Let's start with the facts: The Broncos had Mike Shanahan a proven offensive genius who had led them to back-to-back Super Bowl victories. They had Jay Cutler, the man touted as the most promising young Quarterback in the league. He is already a Pro-Bowl QB. Just a little more proof, and everybody was prepared to accept Cutler as an elite NFL QB. The Broncos had the #2 ranked offense in the league by points. I can tell you that they had a smooth rhythm moving down the field which was a true pleasure to behold. They looked like an offensive Juggernaut coming to life last year. Cutler looked totally confident and in control almost all the time. Yes, he had a few bone headed plays, but didn't Bart Starr, Bradshaw and Montana have some stupid plays early in their careers also? Hell yes they did!

Then it kinda collapses. The Broncos don't make the playoffs. The next thing we know, Mike Shanahan has been fired. He has a teary news conference where he declares that Pat Bowlen is still his best friend. Jesus... Speaking as a Ram fan, I was utterly shocked. I wanted to sign Mike Shanahan immediately.

Then Bowlen announces that he has hired Josh McDaniels, OC of the Patriots. Jesus... You fired Mike Shanahan to sign this esquinkly little 32 year old shit with absolutely no credentials to his name? You want Josh McDaniels, not Mike Shanahan? SHIT! Speaking as a Ram fan, I was pretty fucking surprised. I was wondering what the hell was going on in Denver. I thought for sure Bowlen would select a defensive coordinator like Steve Spagnolo, now the chief of my team, to be their head coach. Maybe we screwed them. Maybe they screwed themselves. What ever the case, I was sure that the new administration would leave the offense alone and work exclusively on fixing the defense.

Now Pat Bowlen, one of the most respected owners in the league, nay one of the pillars of the league, allowed this no-name dude McDaniels to break the one working part of his football team? OMG WTF? Unbelievable...

The majority of Hall of Famers on the NFL Network are pretty horrified by these events. They can't believe Denver would give up on Cutler. They have no idea what the hell Bowlen & McDaniels were thinking. Everybody is scandalized.

What every happened to if ain't broke don't fix it?

I really feel bad for the people of Denver. The Broncos were on the rise. I was certain they would win the division and be a contender in 2009. I believe the Chargers are vulnerable, and there is nobody else in the West. Oh yeah... I forgot that the Raiders and Chiefs are there... but that is still nobody. Now McDaniels has done it. He has effectively wrecked the team. He has set them back 5 or 6 years. I think they are toast in 2009.

So how would I fix it?

There are only two courses of action if you are Bowlen:

1. Complete a trade with Detroit for the #1 pick.
2. Rollback all the changes made since the season ended.

If you take option #1, expect the Lions to hold you over a barrel. They know you are despirate now. By taking this option, you announce your only real hope is to acquire Matthew Stafford... and pray he is as good as Cutler... eventually. Detroit can stick a gun in your ribs and demand that you give them a sweetener. Maybe one of your two WR. That would hurt like hell.

How the hell can Bowlen execute option #2? It is very simple:

1. Fire McDaniels
2. Go on bended knee to Shanahan (who claims you and he are BFFLs) and ask him to return.
3. Make him responsible for smoothing things over with Cutler
4. Publicly announce that you fucked up, and are rolling back changes.

Speaking as a computer programmer, I can tell you that we do option #2. When we accidentally write bad stored procedure which garbles data and messes up the DB, we rollback. We put the old data back in place. We put the old code back in place. We clean up the mess. We have to publicly announce that we fucked up. We restore the system. It hurts. Nobody likes to fuck up. Nobody likes to eat crow. Nobody likes to clean up the mess. Yet this is the only way to keep the organization healthy and on track. We gotta fix it.

Both are very difficult paths to trek. I really pity Bowlen. Never give a young fucktard this much control again. That was a serious error. I think the people of Denver will cheer option #2. If you are headed in the wrong direction, turn around

So there are more rumors about the Rams #2 pick

So fresh rummors have surfaced about the Rams' #2 pick overall in the upcoming 2009 draft. What are these rummors?

1. The New York Giants are said to be interested in the #2 pick. Why? The Giants have an excellent roster. They were the finest team in the league during the regular season. Eli Manning is arguably more talented than his elder brother, but his brother has plenty of things Eli doesn't have: 3 game breaking receivers and the most effective tight end in the league. Worse Plaxico Burris is probably going to do 3 years in prison, and this will effectively terminate his career. This legal case will also remove the 1 game breaking receiver Eli has. For these reasons, the Giants are said to be very interested in Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech. He is a legit game changing receiver. Unfortunately, he is also a top 5 pick. The Giants need a very high pick to secure this receiver for Eli. God knows they have the talent. They can afford to sacrifice this year's entire draft in the name of acquiring a great receiver.
2. The Vikings are without a quarterback , and it is rumored that they have three options in mind (A) Sign Kurt Warner, who is a free agent, but this is considered unlikely, (2) Make a deal for Mark Bulger--which is highly questionable as an option, (3) Trade horses to get a high pick and draft a QB. The third option is considered the most realistic option.

So what do I think? Deal the pick to the Giants if they want it. Deal Bulger to the Vikings if they want him. With the rebuilding program we must undergo over the next 2-3 years, we should consider acquiring a fellow like David Carr and/or Chris Simms. I would acquire them both. Both would be effective stop-gaps as we build.