In a draft that at best can be graded as incomplete, one clear fact is that Joe Banner placed a huge bet -- on himself. And he's confident he made the right play.
View full sizeWhy is this man smiling? It just might be because Joe Banner knows he's smarter than everyone else in the room. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- NFL draft grades are piling up in one of the most ridiculous excerises in sports.
Especially this time around in Berea where the Browns downgraded their "War Room" status to "Detente Central."
A draft as incomplete as the one purposely crafted in Berea over the weekend invites being measured in a completely different way.
The Browns deserve something between a solid "Huh?" and your basic "Must be over my head."
Here's what's clear: with this draft, Joe Banner has upped the ante. As he has all along -- in hiring a first-time head coach and limiting the powers of a traditional GM -- Banner is betting big on himself.
He's even betting against the Pittsburgh Steelers in an area (defense) where they own a rather impressive track record.
You can talk about how the Browns, in separate deals with Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, played simple odds in trading two middle-round picks for higher picks in 2014. The math favors them.
But they still have to cash those picks. Delayed gratification is only as gratifying as the end result.
Banner seems bent on proving he's not only the smartest man to make picks in Berea recently but also in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cincinnati.
There's something to admire in his self-assuredness. You'd just feel better if the fingerprints on talent procurement during his Philadelphia days were more easily traceable to him, not Andy Reid.
In a pre-draft news conference Banner professed an affinity for trading down based on his Philly experience. Then he stayed put at No. 6 (with deals on the table) to take LSU's Barkevious Mingo.
Mingo has the speed to become a dynamic game-changer. He made sense over corner Dee Milliner.
Good corners can greatly impede passing games. But matched against the biggest and most dynamic wide receivers in the game, even good corners (who are so often significantly shorter) are fighting a mismatch. Disrupting the quarterback is a surer thing.
Mingo arrived in Berea Friday, turned sideways and disappeared. He looks more like an NBA small forward. He'll have to put on weight and he'll have to make the transition to linebacker but he's hardly the only projection to go in the Top 10 of this draft.
Banner could've made a trade, reclaimed the second-round pick used on Josh Gordon and perhaps still come away with Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones. Jones going to Pittsburgh instead only makes Banner's decision more intriguing.
Banner more directly engaged Pittsburgh by trading with the Steelers in the fourth round, clearing the way for the Steelers to draft a position (safety) of need for both teams.
Not only did the Browns' team president shrug off doing business within the division, he welcomed it as an opportunity to help yourself and hurt your rival. That's bold, given the Browns' two biggest rivals.
Especially given how the last major draft day deal with a rival went -- Haloti Ngata to Baltimore -- you'd feel better about Banner's approach if his GM was, say, Ozzie Newsome.
This deal with Pittsburgh made more sense than that one with Baltimore if only because the downside for the Browns isn't as dangerous in the middle rounds.
I didn't have a problem with Banner and Lombardi passing on troubled Tyrann Mathieu (Honey Badger) and later taking a flyer on a player (Armonty Bryant) convicted of selling marijuana. The seventh round is where you take risks.
Overall, we're left with the impression the Browns didn't think 2013 was a particularly good year in quality or quantity.
Or they wanted surplus picks to help offset what first- and second-round picks they might have to give up in a deal for a franchise quarterback in 2014.
Joe Banner left us guessing. Just not about how much confidence he has in Joe Banner.