THE DAILY BLOVIATION
Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!
What would the OBR Daily Newswire be without it being a space where I could complain about things that most folks don't care about? A bunch of links about Cleveland Browns football, that's what.
Today, I find myself writing the Newswire at 5:30AM thanks to Amtrak, the nationalized railroad conglomerate that hauls human beings and freight from place to place. Apparently, Amtrak thinks so much of Cleveland that the boarding and departure times to pretty much anywhere you want to travel by train are in the dead of night.
For example, my wife prefers to travel by train rather than by airplane, and when she goes to New York to visit family, she has to board at 5AM and return home at 3:30AM (if things are running on time). If you want to go to Chicago, it's the same deal: You board around 4 in the morning.
No respect, right? Where are the trains to NY or Chicago boarding at reasonable hours? It's almost like Amtrak considers those cities to be more important than Cleveland, so they get reasonable arrival and departure times and we're stuck hanging around a dark and dismal parking lot in the middle of the night. Then, the train is an hour late and you get home at a time when it makes just as much sense to just stay up and write your early morning column as it does to go back to sleep.
Pant, pant. Alright, my rage is ebbing. I had better segue to football...
(Ahem. Um. Here goes.) It's almost like the Amtrak bureaucracy shows as much consideration for the unique situation here in Cleveland as national football columnists do as they consider the team's draft strategy. More on that below.
5. MORE FOOTBALL NEWS ON THE WAY
Browns UDFA Signings and Rookie Minicamp Invites: Dates, Notable Prospects, and More - (profootballnetwork.com)
The NFL’s Sports Calendar Takeover Continues. Next Up: Schedule Release - (frontofficesports.com)
We're just going to get a short breather after the draft when it comes to football news. Now that we have the Browns list of undrafted free agents and training camp invites, the question becomes when we can see some of these new acquisitions in action. The answer is likely May 10-12 when the Browns rookie mini-camp will take place.
Before that, as yet unannounced, the NFL schedule reveal will likely happen on the second Thursday of May, as it has for the last couple of years. That would be May 9th if the NFL holds to form. Expect overproduced TV spectaculars, fireworks, cheerleaders, and whatever other excesses network and league executives can dream up for what should otherwise be a memo. But, you know, this is the NFL, so excess is the whole point.
4. THE HASLAMS START WORKING THE STATE
Cleveland Browns huddle with state lawmakers to show off Brook Park stadium plans - (signalcleveland.org)
As anyone with an eye for things stadium-related should have been expecting, the Haslam organization is starting to work with state officials to build momentum for HaslamWorld in Brookpark. They will need help from the state to make it happen, certainly financially and perhaps legally, if the City of Cleveland wants to pester them with the Art Modell Law on their way out of town.
I found this passage from the above-linked article interesting: "Drawings shown to lawmakers depicted a multipurpose stadium that appeared built deep into the ground and with room for development around it, people knowledgeable about the pitch said. "
This indicates that we may start seeing renders of what HaslamWorld would look like in the near future as the Haslams try to build momentum for the project. Meanwhile, the City of Cleveland is putting together its own proposal, but it sure seems like all the momentum from here is about ten miles south of the lake.
3. JAMARI THRASH GETS SOME LOVE
Steve Smith, Jr, may not be fond of Jerry Jeudy, but he loves him some Jamari Thrash, as show in the above YouTube clip as Smith breaks down some of Thrash's work at Louisville. Lance Zierlein also has a succinct summary of Thrash's strengths and weaknesses at NFL.com.
2. JAVION COHEN HAS SOME WORK TO DO
CanesCounty - Miami guard Javion Cohen signed as an undrafted free agent to Browns - (miami.rivals.com)
This quote from Cohen via CanesCounty.com: ""Whatever pick I go is going to be a steal. The intangibles that I bring. My IQ. My ability to play four spots, five spots on the offensive line, and my locker room presence. I feel like I was blessed, and anointed for this position. God has allowed me to walk this path for a specific reason. However, it turns out, whoever picks me, they are going to get a steal, and it's going to be the best decision they have made."
The Browns certainly hope so, but as a highly-rated UDFA, Cohen has to be hoping that the Browns will decide to keep a an additional guard on the roster, something they haven't always done. With Bitonio, Teller, and Zinter pretty much assured of starting 53 slots, Cohen may have a hard time cracking the 53. Regardless, it's a savvy pick-up for the Browns as they look forward to 2025 and beyond.
1. STUPIDITY GOES META
???? I´ve compiled 20 evaluations of the 2024 NFL draft and totaled the team grades.
— René Bugner (@RNBWCV) April 28, 2024
Here is the spreadsheet. Sorted by GPA for all 32 teams.
I also sorted the 20 evaluations by GPA. From left (soft graders) to right (hard graders).
Thanks to all who give out grades every year! pic.twitter.com/53EozhxKQT
2024 NFL Draft team-by-team rankings: Best and worst classes, from 1 to 32 - (theathletic.com)
Prisco's NFL Draft 2024 grades for all 32 teams, including best and worst picks: Commanders receive only A+ - (cbssports.com)
Well before the draft and during the draft, I was preparing anyone who would listen for the inevitable low grades (generally "C"s) that the Browns would get following this weekend. They would get this grade for two reasons: (1) the lack of a first-round pick means they wouldn't get a player with obvious immediate impact - although Michael Hall may come close - and, (2) they are drafting more with an eye to 2025 and 2026 than 2024, meaning that the short-term myopia of most football "experts" would work against them.
And, lo and behold, according to the spreadsheet presented at top, the Browns got the second-lowest grades in the NFL per the "experts".
Everyone - and I mean everyone - knows you can't grade a draft for three years. Yet, the media persists in immediate grades as a way of providing their feedback on well they think teams have performed. But I can assure you most of the people doing their grading here have barely done their homework on the Browns specific needs beyond accumulating a cursory list of needs. So, I find these grades to be largely worthles and stupid. The accumulation of individual points of stupidity into a chart doesn't make it smart. It just makes it "organized stupid."
So, I guess if you like your stupidity well-organized and bullet-pointed, there are two places you can go. One is the chart I embedded above. The other is the OBR Daily Newswire itself, proud to have been your daily source of organized stupidity for the last four years.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
Ultrasound therapy shows promise as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease - Queensland Brain Institute
Tremendous progress is appearing in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, a scourage that takes the wisest and oldest from us far too early. I'm particularly sensitive to this since it runs in my family, taking a number of my direct relatives away in their elder years.
Today's good news is that ultrasound treatment seems more effective than expected in early tests. It was believed that ultrasound would have to break down certain types of plaque in the brain to help with Alzheimer's disease, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It can help even before that point, perhaps leading to new non-invasive treatments for the tragic disease. Every day, it seems a little more progress. It gives me hope.
YOUR MORNING NEWSWIRE SOUNDTRACK
OBR VIDEO
Jake and Andrew open the show with a discussion on a key quote from Draft Analyst Dane Brugler both during and after the draft on Hall's place on NFL organization's Big Boards. What it means and what correlation it has to his dropping to pick 54. Then the duo shifts to answer the following questions in superlative form for the Browns' selections:
OBR ARTICLES FROM YESTERDAY
Predicting The Cleveland Browns 53 Man Roster Post Draft - (Jack)
Cleveland Browns News 4/28: Draft Picks, Ridiculous Grades, and the Outside World Still Exists - (Barry)
Draft Steal Get 60 Off an OBR Annual Subscription - (Barry)
The Stats Behind the Cleveland Browns Selection of Michael Hall (Cody)
Reviewing The Browns Age and Athleticism Guardrails Post2024 NFL Draft - (Barry)
FROM THE FORUMS
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Meanwhile, here are some new threads in the OBR’s discussion forums:
ASK THE INSIDERS (VIP)
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THE WATERCOOLER
OT: Songs That Go HARD
DeShaun Watson trade complete results: an analysis
Cleveland Browns draft review - Just an opinion from a member.
OL options
Favorite / Least Favorite Pick
LiveWire Thread for 4/28 - Twitter, Articles, Videos-OPEN THREAD
UDFA lookback
Why not OT, EDGE, WR, LB, CB, DT - Browns 2024 Draft?
Jalen Sundell UDFA
Draftee Contracts
NFL Sunday Ticket
WRAPPING UP
When not getting his stupid ducks in a row, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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