Browns eyeing front 7 prospects

01.22.2008

MOBILE, Ala. -- The Browns are far from having one player picked out, but they have zeroed in on the defensive front seven.

And after a season of scouting the top prospects for the 2008 NFL Draft in a variety of different environments and two days of watching many of them work together at the Senior Bowl this week, they like the ones they'll be choosing from come April.

"Ideally, if you got to just go hand pick the players, yes, we'd like to get one of these front seven guys," Browns general manager Phil Savage said Tuesday. "But it's very early. If we get to the middle of the second round and there's a guy we really like at a different position, I don't know that we would pass him up.

"If they're all ranked about the same, though, then we'll try to do something with the front seven. There are some good players here that could end up being part of our plans."

Savage and his scouts have been watching most of these players for months. Head Coach Romeo Crennel, new defensive coordinator Mel Tucker and the rest of the coaches are getting their first up-close exposure this week and Crennel, a former defensive lineman and defensive line coach, is enjoying watching the big boys do battle.

"There are a couple guys out here you notice," Crennel said. "We'll see how they do the rest of the week and throughout the process. When somebody here grabs your attention you follow up on it to see if he's the real deal or if he's just a flash.

"But I think there's enough talent here that we can get somebody that can help us. We feel like we have some good depth in the (defensive) backfield and we need to get some help in the front seven. That's primarily what we're looking at. We'll see how these guys can fit."

The Browns are in a unique situation as they don't have a first-round pick -- they traded it during last year's draft to get Brady Quinn -- and won't pick until53rd overall, in the bottom half of the second round.

That means the guys that really jump out at the Senior Bowl, like USC defensive lineman Sedrick Ellis and linebacker Keith Rivers, Penn State linebacker Dan Connor and North Carolina defensive lineman Kentwan Balmer (who left after one Senior Bowl practice due to injury), might be long gone by the time the Browns get to pick.

But you never know exactly how a draft is going to unfold, or how much the Browns might end up liking a group of players they'd target in a possible trade scenario. After two days in Mobile, it looks like they could still get a good player -- like Maryland defensive tackle Dre Moore, USC defensive end Lawrence Jackson, Virginia Tech linebacker Xavier Adibi, Michigan linebacker Shawn Crable or UCLA defensive end/linebacker Bruce Davis -- if nothing happens and they stay at 53.

"I think the Senior Bowl traditionally has been a first to third round kind of game," Savage said. "If we're picking in the second round, there's a really good chance the player we're going to pick would come from this game. There are some interesting players that we're going to look at and keep looking at."

With all the scouts and coaches in attendance, the Browns certainly have the Senior Bowl covered. And Savage feels confident that in the fourth offseason with he and Crennel working together to develop plans and acquire players, and most of the coaches and scouts having prior experience working together to attempt to fill the Browns' needs,

"Not to take anything for granted, but you can focus on practice and the players here because the guys on the staff know our needs and they know each other," Savage said. "Everyone speaks the same language in the scouting system. We can say, 'hey, this guy is a 6.8,' and everyone knows what that means.

"That part of it has gone extremely well. The staff really knows what they're looking for in interviews and when we try to fit guys into our schemes."

That's part of the reason the Browns moved so quickly two weeks ago to promote Tucker, whom Savage called "a great communicator with outstanding credentials."

"Anytime you get a new group together and try to build a program, continuity is important," Crennel said. "So once you get quality people in place, you want to try to keep those guys in place because they can grow together and get better together, and I think that's what's happening here."

The scouts and coaches will meet in Berea next month before attending the NFL Scouting Combine in late February and pro day workouts throughout March. They'll meet again to finalize the team's draft plans in April, when there's a very good possibility they'll zero in on some players they're watching this week.