The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
A look at the Browns in NFL mock drafts
Edge rusher Gregory Rousseau of Miami (Fla.) could be the Browns’ first-round pick this year, if at least one mock draft gets its prediction correct. Plus, thoughts on the Cavaliers and Monsters.
It was much easier in years past for NFL analysts to slot the Browns in their mock drafts when Cleveland was picking in the top five — and even then few if any had former general manager John Dorsey taking Baker Mayfield first overall in 2018.
The Browns will pick 26th in the first round on April 29, barring any trades. Not surprisingly, the consensus among the mock drafts is director of football operations Andrew Berry will continue stacking the defense as he has in free agency, but opinions on how that pick will be used vary greatly.
Let’s take a look at what the prognosticators are saying with the draft, to be held in Cleveland, less than three weeks away.
• Peter Schrager of NFL Network has the Browns taking edge rusher Gregory Rousseau of Miami (Fla.) — “Rousseau didn’t have the lights-out pro day everyone wanted to see, but he still has the lightsout potential,” Schrager wrote. “He’s put on a ton of weight since he got to Miami and is just scratching the surface. A 2020 opt-out who is a hard evaluation with just one full year of college football, Rousseau’s upside remains enticing, especially in the back end of Round 1.”
• Bryan DeArdo of CBSsports.com also has the Browns taking Rousseau and has this to say about the 6-foot-7, 265-pound pass rusher: “The Browns need a little more bite in their defense entering 2021. In Rousseau, the Browns are getting a player who tallied 15.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss during his final season with the Hurricanes. Rousseau would help replace Olivier Vernon, who finished second behind Myles Garrett for the team lead in sacks last season.”
• NBCsports.com has the Browns taking edge rusher Jason Oweh from Penn State. “There’s being athletic, and then there’s what Oweh did on his pro day,” Dalton Johnson wrote. “At 6-foot-7, 257 pounds, Oweh ran an absurd 4.36 40-yard dash and was explosive in his jumps. Lining up Oweh on the opposite side of Myles Garrett would be the battle of the athletes. Oweh has everything a team is looking for from a physical standpoint, and this could be the perfect situation for him.”
• WalterFootball.com has the Browns adding linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah from Notre Dame. “The linebacking corps was a weak spot for the Browns last year. So this is a position the front office could target early in the 2021 NFL Draft. Owusu-Koramoah is a fast linebacker.”
• Last but not least, Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN is giving the Browns linebacker Zaven Collins from Tulsa in his latest mock draft: “If Cleveland can find a pass-rusher to put opposite Myles Garrett, that’s a huge win, which is why I considered Oklahoma’s Ronnie Perkins and Texas’ Joseph Ossai here,” Kiper wrote. “But Collins is a versatile defender who could play linebacker or defensive end, and I like his fit with the Browns. Get him on the field and watch him make plays.”
The Browns have each of their picks in rounds 1-7 plus an extra thirdround and fourth-round pick. Berry doesn’t need to stock the roster with nine new players. If he likes a particular player, he could bundle picks to move up 10 or so spots and sabotage all mock drafts. He could use the same strategy to pick up an extra second-round pick.
Cavaliers a riddle
Less than two weeks ago, Sam Amico of FortyEightMinutes.com speculated general manager Koby Altman could be out of a job if the Cavaliers didn’t show signs of improvement. Since then they beat San Antonio and Oklahoma City on the road to take a two-game winning streak into their home game with Toronto on April 10.
The Cavs, 19-32 are 12th in the NBA East, 3.5 games behind the 10th place Bulls with 21 games left in the regular season. The Raptors are a half game ahead of the Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers have not had a complete lineup all season. Currently, center Jarrett Allen is out with a concussion and forward Larry Nance is sidelined with an undisclosed illness. The Cavs can make a legitimate run at that 10th spot if they get Nance and Allen back now that Kevin Love has recovered from his calf injury. Lover has played four straight games and played at least 23 minutes each of the last three.
Matthew Dellavedova has played in four games since returning from a concussion and appendectomy. The veteran point guard is averaging 17.5 minutes a game. He has 22 assists and zero turnovers.
• The thought of the Cavaliers finishing 10th to be in the play-in tournament and possibly getting the eighth seed (they would have to beat the ninth place finisher on that team’s court then beat the seven-eight loser on the road) got me wondering how often the eighth seed has beaten the first seed in the NBA playoffs.
The eighth seed has beaten the top seed five times in 74 chances dating back to the 1983-84 season when the playoffs were expanded to eight teams in each conference. Most recently the eighth-seeded 76ers stunned the Bulls in the 2012 playoffs.
The upset happened four other times. The first round was best-of-five in 1994 when the Denver Nuggets (42-40) overcame a 2-0 deficit in the playoffs to win the next three games and eliminate the Seattle Supersonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) in five games.
The Knicks (27-23) dumped the 33-17 Miami Heat in 1999 in five games. The Knicks became the only eighth seed to advance to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Spurs.
The Warriors (42-40) eliminated the Mavericks (67-15) in 2007. That year the Warriors were 3-0 vs. Dallas in the regular season.
Memphis as the eighth seed knocked off the Spurs in 2011.
Playoffs?! No playoffs
For the first time on any level since they could lace up a pair of skates and play competitive hockey, there is no incentive to compete for a playoff spot for players in the AHL.
There will be no playoffs in the NHL’s top farm league this season because of the travel restrictions caused by COVID-19.
“It’s really strange,” Monsters left wing Tyler Sikura said on a recent Zoom call. “To be honest, I thought going in it was going to be a little more difficult. We’ve actually done a really good job. Credit the coaching staff and the people we have in the organization.
“Every game means so much. When you’re in professional hockey, you’re always playing for something. Obviously, we have a good team and a good group of guys. It would be good to see what we could have done in the Calder Cup playoffs, but at the end of the day, you’re playing for your livelihood. Everyone is playing for a contract for next year. There’s so much on the line that the quality of play has exceeded my expectations, actually.”
The Monsters are second in the AHL Central with a record of 8-5-1 for a winning percentage of .607. They have played nine fewer games than the Texas Stars. Teams within the same division don’t play an equal number of games; the Monsters’ season is 28 games. The Chicago Wolves have 33 on the schedule and the Stars play 39.
• More weird hockey news. You can be excused if you stopped following the Federal Prospects Hockey League after the Mentor Ice Breakers folded in December.
The FPHL was a 10team league last season. This season it is a fourteam league with Elmira (New York), Columbus (Georgia), Carolina (Winston-Salem North Carolina) and Port Huron (Michigan) comprising the whole shebang.
The Delaware Thunder, Danbury Hat Tricks, Motor City Rockers and Watertown Wolves are on hiatus, Danville was replaced by an expansion SPHL team. The Ice Breakers were the 10th team.
The regular season ends April 18. The top two teams in the league, currently Elmira and Columbus, meet in a best-of-five series for The Ignite Cup.
I didn’t know that
... until I read my Snapple bottle cap
Honeybees navigate by using the sun as a compass . ... A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber the same size . ... Green and black tea come from leaves of the same tree . ... Ants won’t walk across a chalk line . ... Silly string was originally designed to be a spray-on cast for broken bones.
... Pay attention, here, Browns game-day captains for road games: A flipped coin is more likely to end up on the side it started on.