Forget about these rumours of Juluis Peppers of the Carolina Panthers possibly coming to Cleveland. Sure it would be great, but it is a very long shot. Peppers is a four-time Pro Bowl Defensive End. He is the Panthers' all-time sacks leader after spending 7 years with the Team. He is coming off a career high 14.5 sacks this past season. Peppers announced recently that he wanted a trade if the Panthers were going to slap the "franchise tag" on him. But reports released yesterday say that Peppers wants to play for only 4 teams - the Cowboys and three other unspecified squads, two of which are in the NFC. So if correct that means only one AFC team is on his desired trade list. Could that be the Browns? Very unlikely. Yes it is correct that the Browns play a 3-4 defense which is what Peppers wants to play in, rather than Carolina's 4-3 defense. But there are several other AFC teams that also play the 3-4 defense including the Jets, Patriots, Dolphins, Broncos and the Steelers. That is some pretty steep competition for the Browns to try to secure Peppers. Don't count on it. I would not be surprised, however, if the lone AFC mystery team does in fact win the bidding because generally teams that trade grand players like Peppers prefer to do so out of the Conference. On the Draft, I notice that a post that I wrote some time ago is starting to make some sense to other commentators. A while back, the only person being mentioned as likely for the Browns' first pick was Aaron Curry from Wake Forest. I suggested that Aaron Maybin of Penn State may make a better pick at linebacker because of his pass rush, sacks and turnover stats. My alternative pick for number one would be Malcolm Jenkins at cornerback from OSU. I now notice that some other predictors are not listing Curry as the likely first pick for Cleveland but rather a host of other possibilities including Maybin and Jenkins. Maybe the tide is turning. Or maybe we should all just quit trying to predict and wait for the actual results. Go Browns!
-Clayton
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