A seven-for-one stunner

The new Browns braintrust gets an A for the sheer number of holes they plugged on draft weekend.

Just how well all those holes were plugged will take longer to figure out.

I winced as the Seahawks snatched Curry just ahead of the Browns. But that’s because I had already abandoned hope for a trade down.

Now just imagine that Seattle had turned a different direction. We’d have Curry. He’d have $23 to maybe $30 million guaranteed. The Browns would be going all in on one tackler among 11, a single set of knees.

Instead, the Browns parleyed that precarious pick into no fewer than seven players:

  • Alex Mack, the draft’s top interior offensive lineman, a brawns-and-brains Berkeley Bear
  • David Veikune, who follows Mel Purcell from the Hawaii defense to Cleveland to gin up the pass rush
  • Coye Francies, a corner with two superfluous Es in his name
  • James Davis, an appropriately-timed late-round running back with promise
  • Kenyon Coleman, a late-blooming 30-year old DE signed through 2011 at about $3 million per.
  • Abram Elam, the young veteran safety, filling the chasm Sean Jones left
  • “The Other” Brett Ratliff, who fits the bill for the QB the Browns needed now

Seven positions of need. Most will contribute. Almost certainly, at least two will start Game One.

Add in four other draftees and assorted rookies to the myriad mid-level free agents already aboard, and the Mangini/Kokonis duo has definitely deepened both sides of the ball.

Thanks, Seattle. And good luck to Aaron Curry.

But I’ll take this way instead. I like the emphasis on heady, motivated characters and the move away from the diva types and prime-dime signings.

Yes, we’ve still got Braylon and DA for that matter, but that only supports hopes that 2009 won’t be a lost transitional year.

So maybe there were a few minor reaches. Maybe an overreliance on known Jets. No matter now.

At least we didn’t just bust the bank. The top pick, Mack, might get $8 to $11 million guaranteed, a more hopeful sign for fans awaiting new long-term commitments to core guys such as Josh Cribbs and D’Qwell Jackson. (Brodney Pool, Jerome Harrison, Lawrence Vickers, Leon Williams, and, oh yeah, Edwards, are among those, like Jackson, entering the last year of their contracts.)

The roster is stocked for the season. How good the ingredients are depends deeply on the next major phase: turning them into a team.