Todd McShay’s 2012 Mock Draft Has The Browns Taking Andrew Luck #1

Leave it to ESPN NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay to stick his finger in our cereal with his latest mock draft. Yes, we know this year’s draft is over, he’s already talking about next year…

McShay’s 2012 NFL mock draft has the Browns picking first overall (insiders only). I know, it outrageous. I mean the Browns usually stink, but could they really stink bad enough to get the number one overall pick?

I’ll say this, I think it’s something we should at least be prepared for.

And if so, we know the drill: If the Browns are drafting first it means they’d have the worst record in the league, it means Colt McCoy had a bad year, thus it means we are talking about quarterbacks, again.

It means we’re talking Andrew Luck, a year early.

Heckert and Holmgren
McShay’s no rocket scientist, the Browns have envisioned this scenario too. When I think of Holmgren and Heckert hunkered down in their war room, I see a lot of sandwiches, and I see a few Andrew Luck chaos theory flow charts on the walls.

If they truly had big plans for us this coming season, they would’ve drafted Julio Jones. Instead, they hedged their bets. They drafted for depth and future flexibility, and Andrew Luck isn’t a bad contingency plan.

Maybe their thinking is, if Colt McCoy really is good enough to lead us to a Super Bowl, than he should be able to show us that with the talent we have right now. “Sorry we didn’t get you A.J. Green buddy, but even if we did, you were still going to have to be the difference maker, not him.”

Colt will have to win games (not look good) with all the chips stacked against him, that’s the only way it can be. That’s the only way there will be no doubt he could do it. He has to show Heckert and Holmgren he can win with average skill players, in a shortened off-season, with a new coach, in a new system. If he earns it that way, he earns it man.

My guess is Heckert and Holmgren know there’s a chance they won’t be very good next year. Average skill players, in a shortened off-season, with new coaches, in a new system on both offense and defense.

And it’s not like they changed divisions. They’re still in the AFC North, where the Steelers and Ravens have played in two of the last three AFC Championship games.

Oh look, now they have an extra first round pick next year. Now they have some ammo, flexibility, the makings of a backup plan.

Can you stand it?
Maybe the thought of another year in the gutter is simply too much to swallow. I sympathize. Nobody knows what it’s like to be a Browns fan but us. We have to live in this house of salt, so get off our porch! Drafting Andrew Luck would mean we have to go there, again.

But how bad could it be? Try this — The smallest possible losing streak for a team with a 2-14 record is five games. The catch is, you’d have to suffer through two separate five-game losing streaks, and another four game losing streak. So odds are its something way worse like an 8 or 9 game losing streak, two straight months of losing, epically bad football, and two wins might not even seal the deal.

The San Francisco 49ers just hired Luck’s old Stanford coach Jim Harrbaugh, and you know they’ve had their chaos theory pow-wow too.

So could you stand another year of losing? I know the answer is no, we’ve had enough, let me rephrase…

What if we make a deal: I give you 12 years of Browns contention, national TV, playoffs, a rejuvenated downtown, maybe even a Super Bowl, through and beyond Ben Roethlisberger’s tenure in our division… and all you have to give me is one more year of 2-14.

I don’t know about you, but I like the word dynasty. I’m taking that deal.

Could I stand it? I’m not saying it would be fun, but I do know this, I just lived through the worst season in the history of worst seasons with the Cavs this year, and I’m still alive. We can do it.

Think about it: No more talking about who our quarterback might be. No more talking about what to do with another top-5 pick. No more new regimes. No more 41-0 losses on Christmas day. No more Steelers fans in our stadium.

No more articles discussing mock drafts a year in advance. Instead, articles discussing playoff game strategy.

Saviors
I like Colt, and I get why everyone likes him too. He’s cool. He made a horrible 2010 season mean something. He was our silver lining- “At least we found out the kid can play.” He made watching the Browns last year awesome when it could have been really horrible. But if they are drafting Andrew Luck it means things didn’t exactly work out for him as our Savior.

We kinda love that word right? I mean, why does every new quarterback we throw out there have to live up to that title? Again, let’s at least be a little prepared for Colt McCoy to not be the second coming of Joe Montana.

First, if the Browns do finish 2-14, that doesn’t necessarily mean Colt McCoy is a horrible player. He could get injured. He’s small, and over the last 24 months we’ve seen him suffer a high ankle sprain, and bust his arm so badly it took nearly two years to heal.

If Colt gets injured next year, in my mind he’s out of chances. That would make three years of injury in a row, and I wouldn’t pass on the next Peyton Manning for that risk.

Second, we haven’t seen nearly enough of Colt to throw out the Montana card like some do. What we saw was a promising player go 2-6 on a bad team. He gets plenty of excuses after last year and I’ll give him that (his first start was in Pittsburgh with no preparation against maybe the best defense he will ever see).

But still, excuses for some means excuses for all. And when you look at it, Colt McCoy’s first 8 starts compare very favorably, dare I say worse, than Charlie Frye’s…

Ok that was mean.

I have my money on Colt being better than Frye, but Savior-esque better? Is that really something we can define? I’m starting to think we all need professional help, like we’ve all got Savior issues or something.

I seem to recall us bestowing that title upon a certain basketball player in this town, and look how that turned out. Look what it’s done to us. The Cavs landed one of the top-10 best players in NBA history and we loved him. We put all of our faith and title aspirations into a him, or his image as our Savior, and he crushed us. We just got dumped by the hottest girl in our class, and now we want the complete opposite.

LeBron James was the strongest, fastest, and most gifted athlete we had ever laid eyes on. But we learned he was a coward, a traitor, spoiled, and self-centered. Colt McCoy is the exact opposite and we are tricking ourselves into thinking we need that.

We want the guy who is all heart. We want the guy who is a leader, who wins with guts and not physical advantages. That’s what Cleveland’s all about right? Guts, honor, and loyalty. We want the guy who is the opposite of the guy who just kicked us in the teeth, no matter how good he actually is.

We’ve got issues people.

Anyway, here’s to hoping the Cleveland Browns win, even if they do by losing.