The NFL Draft is a little over a week away and therefore, we have entered the silly season.
It’s a period where people will hear a lot of rumors and comments from a team’s executives and those comments could be made just to create a smoke screen for other teams.
It’s probably more subterfuge than there needs to be.
Earlier this week, fans were up in arms when Cleveland GM Andrew Berry said there wasn’t much difference between playing right tackle and left tackle in today’s game.
Was Berry being serious? Was he underestimating the switch in positions? Or was he trying to let other teams know the Browns may not be drafting a left tackle with the 10th overall pick in next week’s draft?
The answer could be one of those choices or none of them. But the other teams in the NFL don’t know that.
Fans of the Browns and all other NFL teams should be ready for a bunch of unfounded information being put out there and much of it would make no sense for the teams involved.
Just yesterday, there was a report out of New York that the Browns are looking at a deal with Minnesota for Odell Beckham Jr. in which Cleveland would get a 2nd round and a 5th round pick in the 2021 draft.
Are the Browns shopping Beckham? Maybe, as we have noted before, his production has slipped over the past few years, but unless he’s a major pain in the rear end in the locker room, it would be odd to think Berry would take that little return for the former All Pro wideout.
There have also been reports that the Bengals are listening to offers for the first overall pick. Of course they are, why wouldn’t they listen. Let’s say Kansas City offers them Patrick Mahomes, do you think they would make that trade? Of course they would.
But KC isn’t making that offer. Still, the Bengals have nothing to lose by listening to the offers, right?
Our guess is the Bengals will indeed take Joe Burrow with the first overall pick, hoping they have their franchise quarterback.
There is probably a grain of truth in any of these rumors. And we are sure there is plenty of talk among the general managers in the NFL going on right now. Groundwork is being laid for possible moves during the draft.
But that doesn’t mean some of the crazy things you will hear in the next eight days are close to becoming reality. It’s posturing.
The personnel people with various teams want certain players they really like to fall to them, so they put out false information hoping to see someone to jump up ahead of them, so the player falls to them.
So what we are saying is just relax when you hear some of the crazy stuff being reported over the next week or so. On the other hand, you are football fans so you probably can’t help yourself.
The people on sports talk radio are happy, that’s for sure.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 