Crabtree Not A Sure Bet To Be A Brown
According to a report in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the Cleveland Browns are not sold on taking Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree with their number 5 pick.
The report states that the Browns were not impressed with Crabtree’s attitude while visiting Cleveland last week, and as we reported yesterday, have scheduled visits with Rutgers’ Kenny Britt, North Carolina’s Hakeem Nicks, and Georgia’s Mohamed Massaquoi, all of whom would appear to be available when the Giants were set to pick in the first round. It should be noted that any of them could also be available for the Browns when their 36th overall pick comes around.
Sources have told Ralph Vacchiano that the type of player available in the draft would effect their decision to keep or trade Braylon Edwards. Vacchiano states on his blog for the New York Daily News:
Meanwhile, amid the reports and speculation that the Edwards-to-the-Giants deal is all-but done, two NFL sources have told me it’s “absolutely absurd” (and yes, both used the same language) to think that a deal involving a player of Edwards’ caliber would hinge on who would be available for the Browns to take in the draft. Neither source had direct knowledge of any Browns-Giants talks, but they insisted that if a deal was done, it would be done. There would be no “ifs” based on how the first four picks of the draft go.
Vacchiano brings up the scenario in the 2004 draft where the Chargers waited until draft day to make their deal with the Giants that brought Eli Manning to New York, even though the parameters of the deal had been already laid out before the draft.
The Browns, according to sources, want at least a first- and a third-round pick for Edwards and possibly Mathias Kiwanuka. The Giants haven’t offered anything more than the second- and fifth-round picks they got in the Jeremy Shockey trade. The Giants seemed unwilling to trade Kiwanuka when that report originally surfaced.
