My Cleveland Browns Career...

[Logan]

After reading the "Browns--time for a change" thread, I decided to take a shot at building them into a winner.
The first thing I did was try and dump some salary. We already had about $25 million in cap room, but I wanted to raise it even more.

I got rid of Ty Detmer's $2.6M by trading him to SF for LB Noah Rexin (hehe--the FOF Julian Peterson) and a 3rd round pick.

We already had two very good DEs in Courtney Brown and fan fave Orpheous Roye, along with a solid back-up in Keith McKenzie, so I traded Derrick Alexander and his $3M salary to Pitt for their 2nd and 3rd rounders.

Orlando Brown (he who was blinded by a ref's flag) was costing me $1.7 mil in his first season, but a ton more later on due to a signing bonus that would pay him $6.25 million over 5 more years. Since he sucked, I decided to cut him, and eat up that huge bonus on next year's cap.

I made a few more moves that left me with (including my own), a 1st rounder, 3 2nd rounders, 3 3rd rounders, 3 4ths, and a 5th. I planned to build through the draft, and I had the cap room to do so.

On to the season. It was terrible. 4-12, many of them blowouts. Couch had a very promising year, as did WRs Kevin Johnson and Darren Chiaverni. The running game, however, was pathetic. Kirby and Rhett combined for less than 500 yards between them. My D-line and LB crew were very good, but the secondary (mainly the corners) was atrocious. My goal of the offseason was to get a stud RB in the draft, along with at least one CB. I had the number one pick to do so.

As I started the Free Agency period, I examined the draft list. Bingo! A stud RB at the top of the charts named Jesse Swain. Red-maxed out in Breakaway speed, catching, 3rd down catching, carrying, and endurance. Close to maxed out green in YPC. I had my guy. There was also a very good CB available, but I knew I needed Swain.

Free Agency starts, and I'm very quiet. I wanted to hold onto my $30+ million in cap room.

Right before the draft, I get a trade offer from the Bucs. Dunn went down, and they want Travis Prentice from me, and were willing to give up the #4 pick to get him. I made the deal, hoping to get the RB and CB I wanted.

I picked Swain #1, praying he wouldn't bust. At 4, the CB I wanted--Craig Osborn--was there. He was maxed-out in Run Defense, and in the high 80's in M2M, Zone, and INT. I also had the first two picks of the second round, so I grabbed a good looking LB and another CB.

As I started training camp, the possiblity of future years of crapiness was running through my head as I hoped Swain and Osborn wouldn't bust. I was relieved to see that Swain didn't bust at all. Osborn, on the other hand, dropped. His run D was still up there, but his other potential ratings were around 50. To my surprise, the other CB I drafted was looking much better.

The 2001 season was looking better. Results to follow...