BEREA: Almost every NFL Draft analyst of note in recent weeks said the Browns’ selection with the No. 1 overall choice Thursday night came down to three words.
Draft Myles Garrett.
Warren Sapp, a former standout defensive lineman with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders who earned seven trips to the Pro Bowl and was selected All-Pro four times, stated otherwise in rather vivid terms recently.
“I don’t see it from this kid,” Sapp said. “I see the splash plays. Everybody gets those. Where’s the game he took over? Where? Any defensive lineman who’s the No. 1 pick, you turn up and you say, ‘There it is!’ This kid, no, I don’t. I’m a pretty plain and frank guy, and I watch the tape and he disappears. I watch the tape, and he absolutely disappears.”
Sapp went as far as saying Garrett, a 6-foot-4½ defensive end from Texas A&M, wasn’t as good as Courtney Brown, the defensive end the Browns drafted first overall in 2000 out of Penn State who didn’t pan out.
“I see a lazy kid that makes four plays a game,” Sapp said. “This is the No. 1 guy? No, no, no. This ain’t even close.”
Garrett’s reaction was simple. Sapp’s words motivated him.
“It adds more fuel to the fire,” he said, “and it’s burning hot right now. They think they can mail comments out and count me out. That’s not true for either of those statements. It doesn’t matter what they say. It matters what the pads say, what the grind says when you finally get to the season. How much work you put in and how hard you prepare. That will speak volumes when you get there.”
Sapp might want to stay away from Garrett’s mother. During a recent online chat, someone asked Garrett about Sapp’s comments. His mother replied with a stinging: “He’s still relevant?”
Garrett, who passed on attending the event in Philadelphia, spent the day with family and NFL royalty in hall of fame defensive end Bruce Smith, with whom he had film sessions, and wide receiver Randy Moss at his draft party in his hometown of Arlington, Texas. He took the opportunity to get some advice.
Smith told him his pass rush needed work, suggesting that Garrett was too slow off the ball, according to one report.
“There is stuff I can work on. You saw the little plays where I did not give all my effort, and was tired and I did not sprint all the way through the ball,” Garrett said. “Those are plays that you can see, and that motivates you to do better. You are not going to have great plays every single time. You have to build off the little details and the weaknesses.”
Thomas’ memory loss
In a recent interview on weekly sports show In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Browns left tackle Joe Thomas revealed that he suffers from short-term memory loss.
The loss has involved forgetting what’s been on a grocery list while at a store and Thomas said that he can’t tell whether it’s from the effects of football or just the fact that he’s older — 32 instead of 21.
“You look at guys with Alzheimer’s and dementia and mood swings and suicides. Lou Gehrig’s disease,” he said. “Those are obviously extremely scary and frightening things.”
It has to be scary given Thomas’ status as the NFL’s iron man, meaning he’s never missed a snap. That streak currently stands at 9,934 and given the Browns’ lack of success during his tenure anchoring the offensive line, it’s all that more impressive.
He said that he tries to keep a positive and pragmatic attitude about the situation primarily that he cannot stop what could happen because the damage has been done. He has to figure how to mitigate any of the possible ghastly effects of his football career.
“And then do what I possibly can, and then I just can’t worry about it, I just have to accept it,” he said. “But I do hope that medicine continues to improve and so in 10 years maybe they’ll be able to fix my body better than they did for the poor guys who are crippled up from playing in the NFL in the ’60s and ’70s.”
Is retirement a consideration for the 10-time Pro Bowler and six-time All Pro?
“I always say I want to play as long as I’m healthy, enjoying it and playing well and somebody wants me,” he told Bensinger.
Does that include playing past his current contract?
“Don’t see why I wouldn’t,” Thomas said.
Shock to the process
Mentor’s Mitchell Trubisky didn’t have to wait long to find a new home. He’ll play on a different North Coast as the Chicago Bears traded their first-round pick, along with third- and fourth-round picks this year along with a third-round pick next year.
Many analysts suspected the Browns might attempt to trade up to take the former University of North Carolina quarterback. Trubisky might have been the No. 1 pick had he possessed a more impressive resume. At North Carolina, he started just 13 games.
Coach Hue Jackson tipped his hand about the Browns’ likely pick prior to the draft during an appearance on the NFL Network’s pregame coverage.
“We’re not going to chase it,” he said of the team’s quarterback situation. “We’re going to let it come to us.”
But rumors swirled that the Browns would attempt to move up in the hope of grabbing Trubisky. If that was the plan, the Bears snatched him from them.
Switching sports, picks
The Browns’ first-round picks are scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the start of the Indians-Seattle Mariners game Friday night at Progressive Field, … The Browns traded the 12th pick in the first round to the Houston Texans and acquired the 25th pick in the first round and a first-round pick in 2018. The Browns now have the Texans’ first two picks in the 2018 draft after acquiring a second-round pick from the Texans in the deal for quarterback Brock Osweiler.
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeorgeThomasABJ.