Ten Years Too Late, Browns Build Foundation

There's a cable channel called HGTV—Home and Garden Television.

People barely keeping the rent paid or within a gnat's eyelash of foreclosure watch and drool over $150,000 landscaping jobs on seven-figure homes, lust after decks and media rooms, and fantasize about "flipping" properties when they themselves are "underwater" on their own mortgage.

Over 10 years and three GM/coaching regimes, the Browns have been run by that model. From Policy to Davis to Savage, the organization built media rooms while the roof was leaking. 

Enter Eric Mangini by way of New York.

His hiring was greeted by a skeptical fan base with all the enthusiasm of a 9-year-old being told to eat his vegetables. At best, the jury's been out on Mangini, but like the classic film Twelve Angry Men, it's been itching to return a guilty verdict with scant evidence.

It hasn't helped that in the "silly season" leading up to the draft, the CIA was more forthcoming than the Browns' braintrust in Berea.

In the city closest to the birthplace of professional football, where a 4-12 team dominates water cooler talk even in the offseason, the villagers were getting the pitchforks and torches ready.

Now that the first draft of the latest regime is complete, Browns fans are beginning to see the plan, and this Browns fan likes what he sees.

First, the Browns were far too close to the salary cap for a 4-12 team. Second, the previous regime had left the team with only five draft picks to restock a team with more holes than a brick of Swiss cheese.

Rumors flew like jets out of LaGuardia (no pun intended). Will the Browns dump their diva with the dropsies? Will their 2007 first-round QB pick be sent packing? Did the new coach really go nose-to-nose with the All-Pro nose tackle?

The new regime did nothing to dissuade the rumors, dismissing them as "internal business." Smart move. Keep people guessing in silly season.

Leading up to draft day, silly season even had the Browns picking a third quarterback to add to the logjam at the position. But again, that was "internal business."

April 25 came, and Mangini found a dance partner.

Almost unbelievably, he cut the rug with the team that fired him, moving down from No. 5 in the first round to No. 17 and getting the No. 52 pick from the Jets in the second round, along with two starters on defense and a developmental QB.

Moving out of the top 10 gave the Browns breathing room on the salary cap, and helped plug a few holes. It also gave Mangini three more former subordinates to bring to Cleveland, helping reinforce the new management style.

Forget whether these Jets are good, mediocre or marginal. When a new CEO takes over a failing company, he'll often bring along people he worked with in the past because they know his management style and can help implement his new vision from within the ranks.

That is simply astute management.

Two more short dances moved the pick to No. 21 and netted two sixth-rounders, bringing the number of draft choices from five to eight on a team that needed bodies.

Draft parties all over greater Cleveland were filled with groans when Alex Mack was selected at No. 21, but this corner applauded. Finally, a regime that builds a team from the inside out!

The second round brought two wide receivers in a row, and more groans ensued. Again, no problem here, given the Browns had lost their third receiver to career-ending injuries and are likely to lose their second option to the penitentiary.

With the No. 52 pick, the Browns took a reach from Hawaii to (maybe) convert to a rushing outside linebacker.

Early speculation had the Browns taking Brian Orakpo from Texas as a similar conversion project, but if this pick is a bust at No. 52, it's a less-expensive bust than a washout with the fifth overall pick.

From the fourth round down, it's difficult to know if players will be steals or be cut before Labor Day, but the USC linebacker, the two cornerbacks, and the Clemson running back all have interesting upsides.

From Mack on down, the players selected are regarded as highly intelligent, and the ghost of Paul Brown might be smiling on the lakefront.

Brown was the first professional football coach to administer IQ tests to his picks, and demanded smarts and discipline from his players.

Expecting the Browns to contend in 2009 is not realistic, and even this frustrated fan knows patience is in order.

But the deck and the hot tub can wait. The foundation is being built, and if the leaks in the roof get fixed this year, the Browns are on their way.