Consider the source, of course, but interesting nonetheless. H&H are loving Colt...

Good piece from Cold Hard Football Facts about the perils of taking "offensive playmakers" high in the draft, and especially trading up to take "offensive playmakers" high in the draft.

I actually think this is good for a whole host of reasons.

I seriously worry for this guy's health after this explosion.

Obviously, I haven't watched all 32 teams this year, but I think 23 -- worst of the .500 teams -- is probably pretty close for the Browns at this stage.

What is amazing is that 6 of the 9 teams ranked below the Browns (realizing this is a very unscientific measure) appear on the Browns' schedule this year.

As has been discussed elsewhere, these power rankings after week 1 are pretty meaningless, but Don Banks lays a whole bunch of pressure on the Browns in this one.

The thing I really wanted to highlight in this one, though, is that the Steelers are still ranked in the top-10 after that federal-prison-style pounding they took on Sunday. I realize the national media generally sweats the Steelers, and it is only one week, but that's still a top-10 team?

My only question is how the hell did this take so long?

While I generally consider King a walking choad, he points out one of my primary fears for the Browns this season: trying to jam a brand new coaching staff and system into a few weeks of prep.

Malcolm Floyd is interesting, though frequently injured.

Stylez White and Tim Crowder register a big 0 on the excitement meter for this guy.

More good copy out of that "classy" Steeler organization.

Pretty interesting piece about a stat I've never heard of ... Passer Rating Differential: the difference b/w a team's offensive and defensive passer rating.

No mention of where Choo is expected to be playing in the last 6 months of his Indians contract...

At about the 18 minute mark of this segment of Dan Patrick's show, he starts to discuss his proposed plan to adjust the NFL schedule that would allow for increased TV revenue w/o changing the # of regular season games (hint: he makes a tweak to the playoffs, too). Sounds like a pretty smart plan to me. Worth a listen.

i caught the tail end of colt's interview on the dan patrick show this morning ... and, among other things, i found it really interesting that colt said his shoulder's still not quite 100% after the injury in the national championship game more than 12 months ago.

what i heard sounded pretty good. colt's a cool customer.

clearly, there's been a lot of back and forth on the Shurmur-as-OC decision around here recently ... Pluto does a great job of describing many of my hesitations regarding this issue in the first 10 or so minutes of this podcast.

Totally incidental to any Browns-specific discussion, but this was a pretty interesting post in the NYT Freakonomics blog ... and it sounds like Levitt's paper might be worth a read.

I liked Mangini, so maybe I'm biased, but I was impressed w/ him in this interview.

Not sure the "NFL favors the Steelers" crowd is going to be chirping about this one...

Harrison deserves every cent of this fine.

with the notable exception of the atrocious mismanagement of the quarterback position...

coach mangini has clearly taken a ton of heat from fans, local and national media, and everyone in between (except, maybe, randy lerner). however, i truly believe that you could strike every mention of "mike singletary" in the attached article, and replace it with "eric mangini".

singletary and mangini clearly share the EXACT same philosophy: team, discipline, execution, sacrifice, accountability, win-first. singletary, though, steps into a situation with more talent (and a much worse division) and is having SI articles written about him. mangini is being burned in effigy.

i don't think mangini's approach is wrong, but he clearly lacks the street cred that singletary has with the 49ers. i don't know how that changes, but, to me, our issue is not mangini's style...it's more the composition of our roster.

consider the source, of course, but this certainly doesn't portend positive things for the browns in the free agency market. i can't say i'm surprised to hear such rumblings...mangini is known for running a military installment of discipline, and i wouldn't think players/agents would be psyched about that.

having said that, though, players will go where the money and the opportunity is, so this is all bluster.