Browns net impact players

04.29.2007

Phil Savage can rest easy. He knows he oversaw a successful draft, that the Browns are better equipped for both the present and future now than they were Saturday morning, that anyone with substantial knowledge of the NFL and the inner workings of the draft process would give the Browns a thumbs up in a poll.

Though this story starts -- and ends -- with a pole.

Joe Thomas was fishing near his Wisconsin home with his father Saturday afternoon when he got the call he'd been waiting for -- the call from the Browns informing Thomas he was going to be the third overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft.

Nice catch.

Back in the draft room in Berea, Ohio, the Browns' decision makers felt good about landing their franchise tackle and began moving forward with their draft plans. Before long, as picks passed and Brady Quinn's name wasn't called, they started doing some fishing of their own for a potential trade partner.

Savage gauged interest and threw out scenarios to teams willing to listen. Some were more willing than others, but Savage was persistent.

"I was out there floating along, just like Joe Thomas, trying to get a nibble," Savage said.

The bite came from Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys. A few phone calls and proposal exchanges later, a deal was done. The Browns called Quinn, who'd spent a long day at the draft in New York City.

Back in Wisconsin, with the trout in the freezer and a plane waiting to take him to Cleveland, Thomas turned on the draft and saw the Browns had drafted Quinn. Nice pick, he thought. Not a bad day.

And it got better. While Thomas was en route to Cleveland, the Browns made another trade with the Cowboys to get back into the second round and select cornerback Eric Wright with the 53^rd overall pick.

In the Quinn-tessential fish story, the fish gets bigger every year. If all goes well for the Browns, they'll point to the 2007 draft for years to come as the big moment.

They added four more players Sunday, completing a seven-man draft class that includes players of many varieties: franchise-type players, need players, intriguing players and depth players, and most of the seven fall into more than one category.

The Browns were active and aggressive, making three trades with the Cowboys. The first helped them land Quinn for the cost of next year's first-rounder and this year's second. In that second round the two teams dealt again, with Savage sending third and fourth rounders to move up and get Wright.

That deal also included a sixth-round swap, and the Browns and Cowboys ended up swapping sixes again Sunday; the Browns got another seventh-rounder in that process.

"I talked to Jerry Jones a few times Saturday," Savage said. "He called me today. He said I was his favorite trading partner."

Savage has cast his line into enough draft pools now (every one since '96) to know what he's looking for. He believes there are seven "positions of impact" -- quarterback, wide receiver, running back, left tackle, nose tackle, pass rusher and cornerback -- and he can't feel anything but good about starting the draft by getting three of them, then adding another corner (very much a position of need) in Brandon McDonald to start Day Two.

That Thomas and Quinn happened to be big-splash, highly-touted Midwestern guys from top-level college programs makes it even better.

"The Browns needed this," Savage said.

The Browns have addressed all of those positions of impact in the last 13 months, most recently with Jamal Lewis, Antwan Peek, Thomas and Quinn. There's little doubt Thomas and Eric Steinbach will help make life for Lewis and whomever the quarterback is easier, and Savage settling the tackle and quarterback spots should be a positive for Braylon Edwards, too.

"This gives us a much better chance of Braylon becoming the player we've expected him to be," he said.

Before the chain reaction officially takes place, there's an all-encompassing positive feeling in Berea. Good picks. Good guys. A chance for the Browns to come out swinging and throw themselves into the AFC North mix.

Legitimacy, progress and victories are all within reach of the hooks Savage has thrown into the water.

After this weekend's haul, why wouldn't he be thinking big?