[Subby]

2007 Cleveland Browns

Year End Score: 71 (72/81/62/71)

WR Michael Irvin is inducted into the HOF. Coke and whores all around!

The salary cap has risen 7.1 million. Woohoo!

DE Brandon Whiting retires.

Our Scout, Erik Johan, stays. He is still in his 30s and has a +6 rating, with only 1 poor/fair.

Our Coach, the embattled Martin Force, stays, although we do take a long look at Washington Coach Gus Boza (but whose POOR in def line disqualifies him).

Fan Loyalty and Support for Stadium are both maxed-out at 100. With this in mind, we only increase ticket prices by an inflation-adjusted 3%. None of our prices are the highest in the league.

Franchise Value: 644,700,000 (4^th overall, 37/100/99/50)

Free Agency
This is a DEEP team. Going into free agency, it appears that we need a DT, WR, and S. We are deepest at o-line and cornerback, but find ourselves $770K over the cap. It’s a good bet that we will be extremely active on draft day. On to free agency…

Offers for S Quinn and FB Bednarik are summarily rejected.

There are some good players available in free agency, but the prices are so high we decide to take a pass and see what draft day brings.

The Draft
We begin the draft with two 1st round picks (26,27), a 2nd round pick (28), a 3rd (26), and a 4th (26). This is the deepest draft I have ever seen with respect to safeties, but it is incredibly weak in one of our other need areas: DT. There are some insanely good o-line guys, but we fall in love with a maxed-out linebacker and look to trade.

We trade our two 1st and one 2nd round pick to Atlanta for the fourth pick in the draft. We say good-bye to long time CB Ty Law, who is traded to Minnesota for the first pick in the 2nd round. With the immense talent playing behind Law, we feel like we can make a move like this.

The salary purge continues as we move longtime starter WR Terrell Owens, and backups WR Matthew Hatchette, LB Bo Ottesen, and two 4th round draft picks (2007, 2008) for the Giants’1st round pick (9). We move several backups (DT Dwayne Sellers and LB Don Bradenburg) to Seattle for their 1st round pick (13). Finally, we trade our 3rd round pick from this year and next year to Baltimore for their 2nd round pick next year (2008).* Time to draft.

4. Phil “The Beast” West, LB, Washington,(97/100/100/95).
9. BJ Bushon, WR, Austin Peay, (59,100,88,100, 85, x, x, 92)
13. Joseph Swift, S, Southwest Louisiana,(98,84,100, x, x, 66)
33. Dwayne James, DT, UCLA, (59,83,66)

We see a wonderful guard available (our excellent o-line is aging) and immediately trade our backup T Doug Hansen to Chicago for their 2^nd and 3^rd round picks this year.

34. Harvey Gretzky, G, Minnesota, (83,92,83)

The trade bug hits again, so we move our third string QB Lee Stone and our 4^th, 6^th, and 7^th picks in 2008 to Carolina for their 2^nd round pick this year.

35. Hardy Dougherty, WR, Arkansas,(76,75, 84, 55, 85, x x , 87)

There is one more stud left, so we offer our third string C Plaxico Carter, our 3^rd round pick from this year and a 6^th pick in 2009 for Atlanta’s 2^nd round pick.

36. Bucky Chapman, QB, Oregon State, (76, 90, 72, 60, 84,80, 83, 90, 54, 69).

A big problem with Sieh is his low rating in both passing accuracy and passing power -*so I am hoping Chapman can develop into a better backup. Once Chapman progresses we can deal Sieh for two first round picks.

Post Draft
We get a post draft trade offer for Rufus Duke , but we are laughing too hard at the offer of Ken Dilger to consider it seriously.

All the deals leave us about 12 million to sign our seven draft picks plus the six free agents we’ll need to plug roster spots. We fill out our roster and move on to training camp approximately one million under the cap.

After training camp, we receive offers for Sheen and Quinn. They are rejected immediately. We sell 100% of our season tickets.

Our cohesion stands at mediocre – several of our draft day moves have given us a bit of a hit (76, 98, 83, 78). We stand first in roster strength (100).


Exhibition Season
We choose seven players to sit during the preseason - a bit of strategy designed to avoid any catastrophic injuries. Here’s who we sit:

G Raleigh Roundtree, DT BJ Mudgett, WR Harvey Wallace, T Jamie Nails, RB Donnie Sheen, DE Matt Champion, LB Rufus Duke.

In addition, QB Blaine Davies and S JR Quinn will be moved down the depth
chart.

Washington (0-0) 20 @ CLEVELAND
(0-0) 28: DeStefano 15-121-1, Chapman 10-15-106-2-0, Roose 8 tackles,
1 int.
Injuries: S JR Quinn 3-5 weeks.


CLEVELAND (1-0) 3 @ Minnesota (1-0)
7: No performances of note.
Injuries: G Ruben Brown 3-5 weeks.
S JR Quinn 3-5 weeks.

CLEVELAND (1-1) 20 @ Philadelphia
(1-1) 27: Davies 9-14-83-1-0.
Injuries: S JR Quinn 3-5 weeks.

NY Giants (0-3) 18 @ CLEVELAND (1-2)
34: 445 total yards on offense, Davies 11-16-209-1-0, WR Dougherty
5-92-1.
Injuries: S JR Quinn 3-5 weeks.

We finish the exhibition season a respectable 2-2. The magnificent seven are activated and we get ready to start the season.

[This message has been edited by Subby (edited 10-26-2000).]