This is my third crack at this - turns out GameCenter's neurons aren't firing on all cylinders right now, kind of like Jake Delhomme's arm in a clutch situation.

Anyway, some of this is saved and is exactly as I wrote it, some is being rewritten for the third time.  Hope it all makes sense.

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

Whatever, yeah we won, I'm happy, Delhomme played better than people are going to give him credit for, we made no real mistakes other than one they didn't capitalize on, but a win is a win.

That's pretty much all I want to talk about with this game, because this organization is (or should be) all about what it's gonna take to make us a perennial playoff contender going forward.  So I enjoy each game in that I'm a happier guy when they win, but since the arrow is pointing away from down for the first time in years, I'm much more interested in 2011-2050 than 1996-2010.

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

A tale of two football games.

Late November. Carolina rolls into town, they miss a final field goal to lose a game they could have won. Eric Mangini, despite the win looks angry and irritated.

Early December. Cleveland rolls into Miami, they make a final field game to win a close game they could have lost. Eric Mangini takes the win with a smile.

It then occurred to me - Eric Mangini's tragic flaw. It's not that he's happy that he got the win in a game that Miami lost for themselves, that doesn't bother me. In fact, I'm tickled we won that game, because I think Miami is better than us almost everywhere. Some of the greatest coaches of all time don't win 100 games in their career. Wins are precious, you should enjoy every one of them, even if you get lucky. That's no flaw. But there IS a flaw there. Read on for more...

This is the flaw: that was an Eric Mangini dream game. Nothing happens, make no mistakes, wait for your opponent to make a mistake, hopefully it's before you do, capitalize, win. Super. Except for the most part, mistakes happen randomly. When gamblers and bookmakers set the lines, they don't throw turnovers out the window - but they do de-value them as a tool for predicting future scores.  So over-concentrating on them doesn't give you as much of a future boost as improving the overall makeup of the team.  We have a Defensive minded head coach. We have a Defensive minded defensive coordinator, and we have a defensive minded offensive coordinator.  We have an offensive minded team president.  It seems like that with a coaching staff so defensive minded, giving them tools to be offensive mided, you either get a giant clusterf***, or you get the best of both worlds.  There is some proof that we're working towards the latter - IF, and only if you've got a general manager who can pull it off.

So let's talk about that guy.

FIVE BIG THINGS, Tom Heckert edition - I've been trying to take a real good hard look at the guy lately, and it's difficult to do.  He doesn't talk much, he doesn't give interviews, he doesn't much talk about the direction he'd like to take the team.

So let's start with that.

1) The draft - One of the changes in Eric Mangini this year is a relative openness with the media, or at least a relative look at the fact that he might be a human, as opposed to a self absorbed controlling ogre.  So, I think back to this exchange right after our draft in April.  Mangini, Holmgren, and Heckert were giving a press conference, and this exchange took place - striking at first because it gave us a glimpse that Mangini might be human, but more interesting now for what Holmgren said...

---

Holmgren joked that every time the Browns' pick came up and McCoy was still sitting there, he'd look at coach Eric Mangini.

"He didn't say anything, he'd give me the eyes," Holmgren said, rolling his eyes in a perfect imitation of Mangini. "I'd say, 'Eric, what are you thinking?' It was the perfect example of us working together. If I had allowed him to make every pick, we would have had six corners."

Mangini joked back, "One of 'em could have played guard."
---

Does it follow that Mangini directed picks one and two (Haden and Ward)?

Everyone openly admits it was Holmgren who pulled rank on McCoy...

Which leaves Heckert where?

2) Trades - Mike Bell for Jerome Harrison.  Chris Gocong and Sheldon Brown for Alex Hall, 4th and 5th round draft picks.  Seneca Wallace for a conditional 2011 draft pick (wonder if his playing time is bumping up against a draft pick moving up a round?).  Peyton Hillis a 2011 6th rounder, and a conditional 2012 pick for Brady Quinn.  It's come out this week that Mangini had a lot to to do with Quinn/Hillis.  Seneca was obviously a Holmgren move.  Which leaves the two trades with the Eagles.  One a fleecing of the Eagles, and one a big oops with the Eagles.

3) Roster composition - If your general manager doesn't veto the idea of carrying 3 cornerbacks, than what gives?

4) Free Agency - Kind of a mixed bag.  Honestly, I don't have a great feel of the 2 and 3 year ramifications (particularly with the uncertain labor status of 2011 forward) for the pickups we made.  Fujita has helped - however, there's a lot of former jets and Mangini acquisitions from last year who have moved forward.

5) I don't really have a #5. I think I did in my last writing of this, but years of debauchery and stupidity have taken a toll on the ol noggin.  But let's make it a conclusion.  I don't think Heckert has been a disaster, but he certainly hasn't been a home run.  Part of this year is having a direction for your organization that can withstand the upcoming 2011 labor uncertainty.  I'm not confident that Heckert has helped that.  Heckert is Holmgren's big player personnel hire.  It's important that he comes through.  Mangini has come along in a way that I did not think he was capable of doing.  I'm MUCH more positive on Heckert right now than I was on Mangini at this point last year, who I wanted strung up by a pair of things I wasn't confident he had.  Mangini has done a lot to prove me wrong this year, and to an extent, so has Daboll.  Let's see if Heckert can make me more than lukewarm.

Again sorry this is so late getting out!  Go Browns!  This week and beyond!