It?s another year and that means another personnel director and head coach are getting ready to lead the Browns entourage into the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this week.
CEO Joe Banner, Vice President of Player Personnel Mike Lombardi and head coach Rob Chudzinski are in charge this time of finding players to turn the Browns around. There is no permanency for the Browns at the Combine, where, for example, Ozzie Newsome has been checking in as the Ravens? general manager since February of 2003. By contrast, the triumvirate of Banner, Lombardi and Chudzinski are the fourth group representing the Browns in six years.
By most accounts, the talent pool being measured, prodded and probed in Indianapolis is deep at defensive tackle and offensive tackle ? two positions the Browns don?t need to fill early.
The combine will be vitally important to Geno Smith of West Virginia, a quarterback that could go as high as first to the Kansas City Chiefs. He could also, as ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper predicts, drop out of the top 20.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said the team bequeathed by former general manager Tom Heckert to Lombardi has a strong foundation, but in switching to a 3-4 defense Lombardi has to search out pass rushing outside linebackers. And, since the Browns don?t have a second-round pick because they already used it on wide receiver Josh Gordon in the supplemental draft last summer, he?ll likely have to find that pass rusher with the sixth pick in the first round.
?You look at the pass rushers, either (Bjoern) Werner or (Damontre) Moore, I think one of those two will be there at six,? Kiper said in a conference call last week. ?The Browns have a lot of need areas. They need a linebacker and a corner.?
Two players that will be tracked closely in Indianapolis are from the SEC ? outside linebacker Jarvis Jones from Georgia and defensive end Barkevious Wingo from LSU.
Rob Rang from NFDLDraftScout.com has the Browns taking Jones, 6-foot-2, 242 pounds, with the sixth pick, but Jones suffers from stenosis, which is a narrowing of the spinal cord. Rang says some teams are concerned the condition will lead to injury and a shortened career for Jones, who in 2012 led all Football Bowl Subdivision schools with 14.5 sacks and 24.5 tackles for loss. Team doctors at the Combine will examine Jones closely.
Mingo, at 6-foot-2, 240 pounds, is projected as an end in a 4-3 defense but could play outside linebacker in the 3-4 alignment the Browns will use as their base defense. Whether the Browns would want to use the sixth pick on a player and change his position is debatable. Plus, he made only 38 tackles and 4.5 sacks as a starter in 2012. He posted better numbers in 2011 when he was a backup most of the season ? 46 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and eight sacks.
?He didn?t dominate this year like he did last year, but he has an awful lot of ability,? Kiper said. Continued...
Knowing the history Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner have with Antonio Gates in San Diego and the fact Kellen Winslow Jr. caught 82 passes in 2007 when Chud was the Browns offensive coordinator, the Browns are likely to come out of the 2013 draft with a tight end.
Most of the tight ends the Browns and other teams will study at the Combine are juniors.
?It would have been awful if not for the juniors,? Kiper said. ?Tyler Eiffert (Notre Dame) and Zach Ertz (Stanford), Jordan Reed out of Florida, Dion Sims out of Michigan State have made this a good tight end crop at the top.?
Eiffert and Ertz are projected as first- or second-round picks, but Reed, Sims and Gavin Escobar of San Diego State should be available in the third round.
Escobar is intriguing. He is 6-foot-5, 255 pounds. He caught 42 passes and scored eight touchdowns last season. Escobar could also split out wide, as Winslow did.
Currently, Jordan Cameron would be the Browns starting tight end. He caught 20 passes and scored one touchdown. Tight end Benjamin Watson caught 49 passes for 501 yards and three touchdowns last year. The veteran of six seasons with the Patriots and three with the Browns is an unrestricted free agent.
Source: http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2013/02/17/sports/doc51210c69321d0049533879.txt
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