You must have an active subscription to read this story.
Click Here to subscribe Now!
Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Takeaways from NFL news in a unique and very fluid offseason of events …
1. The first – and, hopefully, last -- stay-at-home draft
To comply with state and national regulations due to the coronavirus pandemic, NFL team facilities remain closed indefinitely.
With no reason to believe they will be reopened soon, and to assure that no team has an advantage over any other, Commissioner Roger Goodell has informed clubs that the draft on April 23-25 will be conducted entirely in a stay-at-home format.
GMs and staffs will not be able to assemble in off-site locations to conduct their drafts. Instead, they will be tethered via electronic devices from their individual residences.
The memo distributed by Goodell to clubs states:
"Because of these circumstances, Clubs have been advised to prepare to conduct the 2020 Draft entirely outside of their facilities and in a fully virtual format, with club personnel in separate locations and able to communicate with one another and Draft headquarters by phone or internet. We have reviewed this matter in the past few days with both the Competition Committee and CEC, and this will confirm that Clubs will conduct their Draft operations remotely, with club personnel separately located in their homes.”
So, in the first draft of the Next New Browns Order, GM Andrew Berry likely will make the final calls in a secluded temporary residence in Middleburg Heights; chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta will crunch the numbers of SPARQ scores and possible trades from his home in La Jolla, CA; coach Kevin Stefanski will offer input from his home in Edina, MN; and owner Jimmy Haslam will monitor his new regime from his Northeast Ohio home in Bratenahl.
According to a team source, these are safe assumptions but exact locations of the Browns’ key decision-makers on April 23 have not been determined.
There are obvious obstacles to overcome.
Wherever they choose to settle in, they better assure Internet speed is upgraded and not interrupted, multiple devices are at arm’s length, and multiple phone lines are available.
To give you an idea of what will be missing, let me take you inside the Browns’ draft room under previous GM John Dorsey.
The room had a large rectangular table in the middle that could seat at least 12. On the main wall was a large screen on which to project video of players at a moment’s notice. The control center of the computerized video device was at the fingertips of the GM in charge.
On the left wall was the main draft board with all draftable players’ names, vital statistics, and health and character status highlighted in coded colors.
On the right wall was every team’s depth chart. Whenever a pick was made, the player’s magnetized tag with all his vitals was moved to the team that selected him by an aide in the room. Every team’s full draft board had to be updated in real time.
On the back wall was other key information available to everyone in the room at a glance.
Now, all of this information must be processed electronically and be available to all the key decision-makers instantaneously so that everyone is on the same page. Time is of the essence, so downloading up-to-date information must not be delayed.
It is certainly not an insurmountable challenge. But a challenge, nonetheless.
2. Offseason program on hold
The Browns’ offseason conditioning program, which was supposed to begin on Monday, is being held up while the league and players union decide how “virtual” programs will be conducted during the stay-at-home directive.
Issues to be resolved include the amount of hours players can be required to attend in virtual classroom sessions with coaches, and how players qualify for their offseason workout bonuses.
On a conference call on Thursday, Stefanski said, “There are workout bonuses for guys, and how do you know that they are doing the workouts? That is a bit of this puzzle that I think we are still awaiting some word. If they are anything like me, the guys are bored to tears and they probably really want to work out. We will be ready. Whatever the league determines is the way to appropriately check up on the guys.”
According to spotrac.com, the Browns have committed more than $1 million in workout bonuses ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 to 10 players. (The new contracts of Browns free-agent signees Andrew Billings and Kevin Johnson were not yet available to spotrac.com).
Defensive end Olivier Vernon and receiver Odell Beckham Jr., each of whom came in trade from the New York Giants, are the only players with workout bonuses of $250,000, per spotrac.com.
3. The draft of the decade
Former Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas was one of 53 players named to the 2010-19 all-decade team, as voted on by the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee.
Thomas was one of eight unanimous selections. The others were Tom Brady, Von Miller, Aaron Donald, Adrian Peterson, J.J. Watt, Justin Tucker and Marshal Yanda. Making an all-decade team almost always leads to enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Thomas said on NFL Network, “Getting named to the all-decade team is pretty awesome. It’s something that I never really dreamed about because there’s plenty of luck that goes into being on the all-decade team. Obviously you’ve got to be really good throughout your career. But if you only play 11 years like I did, you’ve got to find out and make sure that most of them come in one decade, so you’re not splitting up decades. So I feel very fortunate and incredibly excited to be named to this decade’s all-decade team.”
Brady, who also was named to the 2000-09 team, is the only quarterback to make two all-decade teams.
“Obviously, Tom Brady is somebody I’ve respected a lot throughout my career,” Thomas said. “Being, in my opinion, the greatest football player of all time, to share an all-decade team with him is definitely something that I cannot wait to tell my grandkids about some day.”
Thomas is one of nine members of the all-decade team who entered the NFL in the 2007 draft. The others are Johnson, Peterson, Yanda, Marshawn Lynch, Darrelle Revis, Eric Weddle, Patrick Willis, and Joe Staley.
“It’s a pretty crazy draft class,” Thomas said. “There was a lot of people that are going to look back and say this was one of the most interesting draft classes we’ve ever had.”