I was going to write about how the Browns’ draft this year is like any other draft and you need to just calm way down about it because you won’t know the results for at least a year, and probably more like three. But Steve nailed that here. Instead, let’s just soak in what’s going on.

Fans are stuck in a time of embracing the team. We’ve been stuck in this situation oh, I don’t know, every year for as far back as I can remember. Here’s a little breakdown of what we’re dealing with (it’s juicy):

• The new ownership is using phrases like “it’s a process,” “a few years away,” and “we’re just doing this to piss you off”*
• The new front office basically took a pass on the draft, prompting my brother to make a terrible “it’s a passing league” joke
• Weaknesses have only sort of been addressed, even though the busy part of free agency and the draft are already over
• The team is fully expecting to be middle-of-the-road again and they’re expecting the fans to be top-of-the-line…again
• The backup quarterback with eight years of experience in the league is less than two years older than the guy just coming off his rookie season
• Neither of those guys listed above are particularly good (yet?)
• First-year coach
• One of the five youngest teams in the league
• The defending Super Bowl champ is in the same division as the Browns, and even the Bengals were good last year – and they’re supposed to be good this coming year, too
• Four guys start in an NFL secondary, so here are the guys (post-draft) who aren’t Joe Haden and T.J. Ward who are vying for those other two spots: Trevin Wade, Tashaun Gipson, Buster Skrine, Eric Hagg, Ricky Tunstall, Kent Richardson, Chris Owens, Prince Miller, Josh Aubrey, Johnson Bademosi, Kevin Barnes, Leon McFadden, and Jamoris Slaughter

Go Browns.

*They didn’t actually say this one verbatim…but they said it.

I’m talking to you, NFL. We’ve had our differences in the past, and we’ve had our highlights. We’ve been through some good times and we’ve been through some bad times.

Remember when you pretended like you were going to keep that lockout going long enough to miss games but we all kind of knew that even you’re not dumb enough for that?

Or how about that time you slowly changed the rules so that teams are scoring significantly more than they were even two years ago? And how about how things will only get worse because, by putting defensive players at a disadvantage, no kid will ever want to play defense?

And remember that time you pretended like you cared about player safety but really entertained the notion of adding games to the schedule? And somehow you continued to make more and more money? Are we idiots? Probably, yes. But the worst thing that you did, NFL, was take the most sacred offseason holiday – the day that ranked up there with the Fourth of July, Memorial Day weekend and Flag Day – and move it away from the weekend and into prime time.

Moving the draft away from Saturday was and is a tragedy. If you’ve read this column in the past, you know that I feel very strongly that we shouldn’t judge the draft on draft day because it won’t reveal its value for quite some time afterward.

I believe this in large part because I don’t want to let the NFL win and I have taken a personal stand against the Thursday night draft. Simply put, I won’t watch the Thursday night part of the draft. I can get my results in real time on the Internet, preferably through Twitter so I can get full snark and analysis that fits into bite-sized morsels, and it saves me from supporting the death of my favorite day of college.

Draft day 2007 was one of the most fun days of my life. I had the good fortune of splitting time between Ohio State’s campus with about ten of my best friends – screaming and cheering at the Joe Thomas pick, having already gotten a full day’s worth of food, playing lawn games, yelling at strangers, chest-bumping for no reason, and just genuinely being dumb – and a friend’s house a few miles way to watch with my brother and a few guys. I think I traveled to the off-campus house between Browns picks and got back to Ohio State before the Brady Quinn pick (hindsight shows that it didn’t pan out, but can you take a moment and remember the unparalleled excitement from that day? It was blissful), which resulted in literal outbursts of song.

I planned a weekend – months in advance – around going to Ohio State for the NFL draft weekend because, well, it was the NFL draft weekend. We would all get up on Sunday, get something to eat, relax while watching the fourth and fifth rounds, and I’d drive back to Ohio University and miss the final round or two. Nearly perfect setup, right? Right.

But now the draft starts on Thursday nights. Yeah, I could go to a bar, dress up in my Browns gear, and probably have some fun by cheering at whomever our the Browns get (and booing whomever the Jets pick). But I know I’ll have to go to work in the morning, and I know the draft will run all weekend and I won’t have to worry about it as a whole for a couple of days yet. And I know that, while some Thursday nights get a little crazy, they don’t offer the same freedom and fun of an all-day Saturday festival of football.

So with that, I continue my boycott of watching the first round of the NFL draft. I’ll be playing video games and constantly refreshing Twitter while the picks come and go. I’ll get three to four texts after the Browns surprise everyone by either trading down and making a weird pick or staying put and making a weird pick (or trading up and making a weird pick!), answer them, and go back to playing video games.

The NFL draft is looming, and despite the fact that I boycott ESPN and forgot until right now that I have the NFL Network, there are still some things that I know about the draft and would like to profess here.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably spent a full day or two watching the draft every year for the last several (and you’re probably upset about the move to Thursday because it ruins a Saturday with your best friends) and you know that the draft is a crapshoot.

Here’s the dirty little secret: The entire NFL is a crapshoot. Things fall in place for a team one year and they fall all out of place the next. The majority of teams are mediocre and then luck takes them to the top or bottom. There are a few teams that are genuinely more talented than others, and you know who they are because they’re good every year.

Think back to the last few years and realize how many games could have/would have ended differently if one play had gone slightly different, or if one pass had fallen incomplete, one tackle or block been made. Now think about how often a player appears as a flash in the pan, or how a guy will be good, then have a huge year or have a down year. Think about how someone thrives in one system and fails in another. All of these are the tiny little inconsistencies in the world of professional football.

So what’s the point as it pertains to the draft? Because it’s a crapshoot too. I have one theory for the first round of this year’s draft, and I don’t think I can make it any more simple:

Dear Browns,

I know you rate the possible draft picks. Take a look at the guys who you’ve rated Nos. 1-6. Whichever guy is available at No. 6 this year, take him. That is all.

Why focus so strongly on position? You want the best players on your team at all times, right? Now, there’s a limit to this, because if the Patriots had the No. 1 pick last year they obviously wouldn’t have picked a quarterback. But when your team goes 4-12 and spent some time quietly looking toward mediocrity, it’s obvious your team needs better players.

The only spot that might be set on the Browns roster is running back or offensive tackle. But if Luke Joeckel somehow falls to No. 6, draft him and convince someone to move around on the offensive line. There’s no telling whether or not the guys who performed well last year will be good this year. We can hope, obviously, but sometimes that’s not realistic.

Yes, it’s likely that Joe Thomas and Alex Mack play well, Phil Taylor disrupts some things, Joe Haden breaks up a lot of passes, Jabaal Sheard pressures the quarterback a bit, and Trent Richardson runs over some guys. But we have no idea if Greg Little will continue the late-season upward trend of catching passes. We don’t know if Brandon Weeden will settle down. We don’t know if the 3-4 defense will make a world of difference, allowing the Browns to start dominating teams on that side of the ball (not likely, because the rules are constantly changing to favor the offense, but whatever).

We don’t know if Travis Benjamin and Josh Gordon will blow up, giving the Browns three legit wide receivers, along with the newly-signed David Nelson. On the flip side, we don’t know if someone’s knee will blow up in Week Three, forcing the team to find a new superstar (I’m not using names or positions here for fear of jinxes).

My point is that there’s no way of knowing what you’re getting in the draft. Things seem clear on paper, but those things would also say that Jerry Rice shouldn’t have gone until about the sixth round because he was slow.

I don’t know. No one does. So pick the best player available and worry about the rest later.

Go Browns.

P.s., I hope Dee Milliner will be the best player there.