2007 NFL Draft: Browns trades and CB Eric Wright

[ZeroClub]

The Cowboys made three trades with the Cleveland Browns during the 2007 NFL Draft:


Trade #1:

Cleveland Browns: Acquired pick No. 22 (select QB Brady Quinn).
Dallas Cowboys: Acquired pick No. 36 and Browns' first-round pick in 2008.

(The No. 36 pick was later dealt to the Eagles as part of the trade that netted Anthony Spencer).

Trade #2:


Cleveland Browns: Acquired picks No. 53 (selected CB Eric Wright) and No. 195 (later traded back to Cowboys).
Dallas Cowboys: Acquired picks No. 67 (selected OT James Marten), No. 103 (selected WR Isaiah Stanback) and No. 178 (selected K Nick Folk).

Trade #3:

Dallas Cowboys: Acquired pick No. 195 (selected FB Deon Anderson).
Cleveland Browns: Acquired picks No. 200 (selected DE Melila Purcell) and No. 234 (selected Return Specialist Syndric Steptoe).

---------------------


IMO, Trade #1 was an outstanding move. Trade #3 made sense too.

But Trade #2 presents a decent opportunity for second guessing, especially now given Newman’s foot injury.

Eric Wright is first round talent with character baggage (early in his college career he was apparently arrested for, but not convicted of, rape. He transferred schools and reportedly behaved himself). The Browns indicated that they gathered additional information beyond the NFL’s extensive background check on Wright, and felt like Wright would be o.k. According to Cleveland media reports, Wright has been an impressive rookie. He’s a blue-chip CB talent with a checkered past.

The Cowboys essentially passed on Wright and a couple of late 2nd day picks (#200 and #234) in favor of Marten, Stanback, and Folk.

It'll likely be several years before we can really evaluate which team made the most of Trade #2.


But it is clear that the Cowboys could have rolled their second round dice on a very talented CB prospect, but elected not to.

 

[TunaFan33]

The Cowboys made three trades with the Cleveland Browns during the 2007 NFL Draft:


Trade #1:

Cleveland Browns: Acquired pick No. 22 (select QB Brady Quinn).
Dallas Cowboys: Acquired pick No. 36 and Browns' first-round pick in 2008.

(The No. 36 pick was later dealt to the Eagles as part of the trade that netted Anthony Spencer).

Trade #2:


Cleveland Browns: Acquired picks No. 53 (selected CB Eric Wright) and No. 195 (later traded back to Cowboys).
Dallas Cowboys: Acquired picks No. 67 (selected OT James Marten), No. 103 (selected WR Isaiah Stanback) and No. 178 (selected K Nick Folk).

Trade #3:

Dallas Cowboys: Acquired pick No. 195 (selected FB Deon Anderson).
Cleveland Browns: Acquired picks No. 200 (selected DE Melila Purcell) and No. 234 (selected Return Specialist Syndric Steptoe).

---------------------


IMO, Trade #1 was an outstanding move. Trade #3 made sense too.

But Trade #2 presents a decent opportunity for second guessing, especially now given Newman’s foot injury.

Eric Wright is first round talent with character baggage (early in his college career he was apparently arrested for, but not convicted of, rape. He transferred schools and reportedly behaved himself). The Browns indicated that they gathered additional information beyond the NFL’s extensive background check on Wright, and felt like Wright would be o.k. According to Cleveland media reports, Wright has been an impressive rookie. He’s a blue-chip CB talent with a checkered past.

The Cowboys essentially passed on Wright and a couple of late 2nd day picks (#200 and #234) in favor of Marten, Stanback, and Folk.

It'll likely be several years before we can really evaluate which team made the most of Trade #2.


But it is clear that the Cowboys could have rolled their second round dice on a very talented CB prospect, but elected not to.

Personally, I think whether or not trade #2 was any good or not is a double-edged sword.

For one, we DID learn in '05 that you CAN'T leave points on the field. And especially with Grammy stinking up the joint and returning to his injury prone ways, we ARE Glad we got Folk just in time.(i.e. despite the key injuries to Flo, WLB, and the pooh-pooh play of Bledsoe, we didn't make the playoffs b/c of our sorry kicking game)

Two, with the long-term statuses(until, say, the end of the decade) of Flo and Columbo pretty much uncertain, I'm glad we got another OT. Now look for Free and Marten to be our 2 starting OTs 1-2 years from now.

And three, I think Stanback will turn out OK for us.

With that being said, sure, we could have had Wright, but we would have had some MAJOR holes to fill if it weren't for trade #2.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

In time the #1 trade could be a bad one. IF Brady does well as a starting QB and Romo doesnt.

 

[dooomsday]

Yeah. We had this discussion on another board. I think we needed a CB anyway, long before the injury to TNew.

Eric Wright would have been great. I dont know that we thought he would fall. Did we make the trade right at the time of the pick, or before? If we knew he was there shame on us. With Henry's status how werent we looking at better CBs than 7th rounders! Frustrating.

Now the guy we really should have held onto was Syndric Steptoe!

 

[Bigdog]

Folk is looking fine especially since Gramatica is injured and if kept on the roster by the first game will receive $800,000. Marten and Stanbeck are young and have potential. I would take three players who could help in three different positions over one player who could help you in just one position. Plus, I really did not think that the Cowboys thought that Newman would get injured. He has played in 67 straight games. I thought that Wright would be good for the Cowboys when it was their turn to pick on the 2nd but looking back on it I think it was good trade with the players we received in return.

 

[SMCowboy]

The Cowboys made three trades with the Cleveland Browns during the 2007 NFL Draft:


Trade #1:

Cleveland Browns: Acquired pick No. 22 (select QB Brady Quinn).
Dallas Cowboys: Acquired pick No. 36 and Browns' first-round pick in 2008.

(The No. 36 pick was later dealt to the Eagles as part of the trade that netted Anthony Spencer).

Trade #2:


Cleveland Browns: Acquired picks No. 53 (selected CB Eric Wright) and No. 195 (later traded back to Cowboys).
Dallas Cowboys: Acquired picks No. 67 (selected OT James Marten), No. 103 (selected WR Isaiah Stanback) and No. 178 (selected K Nick Folk).

Trade #3:

Dallas Cowboys: Acquired pick No. 195 (selected FB Deon Anderson).
Cleveland Browns: Acquired picks No. 200 (selected DE Melila Purcell) and No. 234 (selected Return Specialist Syndric Steptoe).

---------------------


IMO, Trade #1 was an outstanding move. Trade #3 made sense too.

But Trade #2 presents a decent opportunity for second guessing, especially now given Newman’s foot injury.

Eric Wright is first round talent with character baggage (early in his college career he was apparently arrested for, but not convicted of, rape. He transferred schools and reportedly behaved himself). The Browns indicated that they gathered additional information beyond the NFL’s extensive background check on Wright, and felt like Wright would be o.k. According to Cleveland media reports, Wright has been an impressive rookie. He’s a blue-chip CB talent with a checkered past.

The Cowboys essentially passed on Wright and a couple of late 2nd day picks (#200 and #234) in favor of Marten, Stanback, and Folk.

It'll likely be several years before we can really evaluate which team made the most of Trade #2.


But it is clear that the Cowboys could have rolled their second round dice on a very talented CB prospect, but elected not to.

I will NEVER question a team that passes on a questionable character player. More often than not those types of players always seem to come back and bite you. For the 1 that you do hit on, you also have 3 or 4 that bite you in the but (Derek Ross, Antonio Bryant) are two for starters.....

 

[dbair1967]

pretty good bet Wright ends up in trouble at some point, and we werent the only team that took him off the draft board either

David

 

[Yeagermeister]

I'm good with all three trades.

Wright reminds me too much of Larrimore.....a ticking time bomb

 

[iceberg]

I'm good with all three trades.

Wright reminds me too much of Larrimore.....a ticking time bomb

me too. i also don't think people were screaming CB (except for our favorite CB whiner eduncan) until newman got hurt. after the 1st 2 pre-season games, anyone scream CB?

no. but newman gets hurt and the others have a ? game suddenly all the smart people scream CB. and like many have pointed out, when your #1 guy goes down, you've got problems. period. the "smart" people want #1's across the board but those of us in reality know you can't get that.

but i do see us making a trade or watching the final cuts to address it and get someone more talented on the field.

 

[big dog cowboy]

But it is clear that the Cowboys could have rolled their second round dice on a very talented CB prospect, but elected not to.

That is what Ireland said after the draft as well.

 

[sago1]

Spagnolas said during draft that the Cowboys removed Wright from their board because of past rape allegation; he was still available when they made trade with Cleveland. Browns claim they conducted additional investigation, but I would think the Cowboys did the same thing.

W/o going into much detail: A female student at same university filed police report stating that Wright had sexually assaulted her. Police investigation turned up about 135 pills (identified by police as rohypnol--date rape drug) in living quarters Wright shared with 3/4 other students. Blood test of unidentified female showed traces of of rohypnol in her system. The police were willing to press charges but the female student refused to press charges & police said w/o her testimony no legal action could be taken. Despite Wright not being charged, the school claimed Wright had violated student rules and he was forced to transfer out. BTW: I didn't make any effort to identify the girl. It's very likely she didn't want to go public particularly if school & Wright agreed he'd leave school.

 

[TunaFan33]

Spagnolas said during draft that the Cowboys removed Wright from their board because of past rape allegation; he was still available when they made trade with Cleveland. Browns claim they conducted additional investigation, but I would think the Cowboys did the same thing.

W/o going into much detail: A female student at same university filed police report stating that Wright had sexually assaulted her. Police investigation turned up about 135 pills (identified by police as rohypnol--date rape drug) in living quarters Wright shared with 3/4 other students. Blood test of unidentified female showed traces of of rohypnol in her system. The police were willing to press charges but the female student refused to press charges & police said w/o her testimony no legal action could be taken. Despite Wright not being charged, the school claimed Wright had violated student rules and he was forced to transfer out. BTW: I didn't make any effort to identify the girl. It's very likely she didn't want to go public particularly if school & Wright agreed he'd leave school.

Hmmmmmmmmm.........care to comment, educan22?

 

[CrazyCowboy]

Yea, it looks bleak today .....but, we did what was best at the time.

 

[ZeroClub]

me too. i also don't think people were screaming CB (except for our favorite CB whiner eduncan) until newman got hurt. after the 1st 2 pre-season games, anyone scream CB?

no. but newman gets hurt and the others have a ? game suddenly all the smart people scream CB. and like many have pointed out, when your #1 guy goes down, you've got problems. period. the "smart" people want #1's across the board but those of us in reality know you can't get that.

but i do see us making a trade or watching the final cuts to address it and get someone more talented on the field.

In the months leading up to the 2007 draft, there were a bunch of people around here who were in favor of drafting a CB early. Perhaps roughly an even number wanted a 1st round WR. Relatively few people wanted an LB, until support for Anthony Spencer picked up some steam - maybe a week or so before the draft.

The interesting part of this is that the Cowboys could have ended up with Spencer, and the Browns' 1st round choice, and a starting caliber CB (albeit with a checkered past).

Without having access to the various sources of indepth information regarding Wright's character (past and present), I don't know if I'd have passed on Wright or if I'd have drafted him. The Browns were o.k. with him, the Cowboys apparently weren't.

I think it is becoming clear that the Cowboys are willing to risk draft picks on players with injury histories, but have become more conservative about risking draft picks on players with character histories.

 

[zrinkill]

Hmmmmmmmmm.........care to comment, educan22?

He runs away from explaining any of his stupid ideas.

 

[eduncan22]

me too. i also don't think people were screaming CB (except for our favorite CB whiner eduncan) until newman got hurt. after the 1st 2 pre-season games, anyone scream CB?

no. but newman gets hurt and the others have a ? game suddenly all the smart people scream CB. and like many have pointed out, when your #1 guy goes down, you've got problems. period. the "smart" people want #1's across the board but those of us in reality know you can't get that.

but i do see us making a trade or watching the final cuts to address it and get someone more talented on the field.

Guess I am Right and you are wrong.

 

[zrinkill]

Guess I am Right and you are wrong.

Since when?

This is you're predictions

Henson is our future QB
Romo will never make it as a QB
Henry will not be back next year
Norv Turner is our next Coach
A. Glenn will not be back next year
We are going CB with our first round pick
Stanback is to slow to be a WR
Stanback will be cut

Wow ....... you are really in the know huh?

 

[Yeagermeister]

Since when?

This is you're predictions

Henson is our future QB
Romo will never make it as a QB
Henry will not be back next year
Norv Turner is our next Coach
A. Glenn will not be back next year
We are going CB with our first round pick
Stanback is to slow to be a WR
Stanback will be cut

Wow ....... you are really in the know huh?

 

[iceberg]

In the months leading up to the 2007 draft, there were a bunch of people around here who were in favor of drafting a CB early. Perhaps roughly an even number wanted a 1st round WR. Relatively few people wanted an LB, until support for Anthony Spencer picked up some steam - maybe a week or so before the draft.

The interesting part of this is that the Cowboys could have ended up with Spencer, and the Browns' 1st round choice, and a starting caliber CB (albeit with a checkered past).

Without having access to the various sources of indepth information regarding Wright's character (past and present), I don't know if I'd have passed on Wright or if I'd have drafted him. The Browns were o.k. with him, the Cowboys apparently weren't.

I think it is becoming clear that the Cowboys are willing to risk draft picks on players with injury histories, but have become more conservative about risking draft picks on players with character histories.

drafting high doesn't make the player a lock either. larrimore, goodrich come to mind. not sure on *when* we drafted larrimore but it seems like it was up there.

if we'd have done that then we'd be ignoring trying to work on the line and there are those of us who'd not be happy with that either. you only get so many picks in the draft and success goes to those who pick wisely. that alone has a lot of parameters around it, doesn't it?

since cb is a high position of need, many other teams opted out of edwards, twice, as well so it's not as if we're the lone rangers of character police. the browns could flub up on a couple of players and still have the local thugs in the bengals to take the heat of rougue players.

i do agree the CB position is now one of need. maybe even moreso than WR if crayton, hurd and stanback come together like we'd hope. maybe even moreso than RB if barber can carry the load for a year or so.

i'd *not* be opposed to taking one in the 1st next year if when we're up a good one is there. i don't want to reach and i don't want to trade around and get cute, i just want BPA in a couple of positions and we have that luxury this time around.

so we'll see what the final week brings, what cuts are made and what trading we may be able to do to address it and then we'll have all year long to evaluate the secondary - not a bad game in houston.

those who do it off a bad game are the knee-jerkers and they get so very old.

 

[eduncan22]

Since when?

This is you're predictions

Henson is our future QB
Romo will never make it as a QB
Henry will not be back next year
Norv Turner is our next Coach
A. Glenn will not be back next year
We are going CB with our first round pick
Stanback is to slow to be a WR
Stanback will be cut

Wow ....... you are really in the know huh?

This is your prediction...

Glenn and Henry are very solid players.

Our Corners are the best.

etc.