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Jason Taylor decision is tough for Browns
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
Published on Tuesday, Jul 22, 2008
The benefit of hindsight is always 20-20.
Never has anyone looked back and been wrong.
So it will be as the eternal question is pondered: Should the Browns have tried to acquire Jason Taylor?
Let's admit that perhaps the Browns did try to acquire Taylor and were rebuffed, or that they discussed it at length and decided the cons outweighed the pros.
There were times this offseason when it seemed the Miami Dolphins would not trade Taylor, or that the price might be too high. The Washington Redskins' acquiring last season's sack leader for a second-round draft pick in 2009 and sixth-round pick in 2010 seems a tad like a deal that could have piqued the Browns' interest.
So let's ponder the Browns and Taylor, a fine player and pro who went to the University of Akron.
The Browns are a playoff-caliber team in need of an improved pass rush; last year, only five teams had fewer than their 28 sacks.
Taylor has had double-digit sacks six of the past eight years, and did not have fewer than 11 the past three years. The only Browns defender to get 11 the past two years was Kamerion Wimbley as a rookie; he had five last season.
But Taylor also will be 34 by the start of the regular season and has made noise about pursuing his acting career after the season.
Sound like another Browns hall of famer?
Taylor is a pro's pro, a guy who won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for his community service.
But he would fill the same role Willie McGinest already does: veteran sage who has a couple or three years left.
Taylor leads active NFL players with 117 career sacks. McGinest has 85.
They're both up there in football years, but that's a lot of sacks.
Taylor proved on Dancing With the Stars that he can cut a mean rug. Then again, Browns coach Romeo Crennel does a mean watusi.
The Browns are close to being a title-contending team. Sometimes being that close means taking the last risk.
Except that the Browns already traded next year's third-round draft choice to Dallas to move up and take tight end Martin Rucker. Trading the second-round pick next year would leave the Browns with one first-day pick — in the first round. The Browns had a zero-activity first day in this year's draft. Line up too many of those in a row, and suddenly the future is void.
One could always ask, ''But what if acquiring Taylor means the Browns reach the Super Bowl?''
Fair question.
One could also ask whether Taylor might tear an Achilles tendon when he tries his next plie.
Too, Taylor mainly played end in the 4-3. His experience at linebacker in the 3-4 is not vast, though he did move there the one year of the Nick Saban nightmare.
To which, one might counter: So what? The job of a team is to get the best players, line them up the way that best uses their talents and go win.
Seems like the addition of Taylor might have provided the Browns' coaching staff with one of those problems they always say they love to have. A pass rush is the fastest way to a good defense. Disrupt the quarterback's timing and he's finished.
Imagine the impact Taylor might have had on Wimbley. Right now, Taylor is the kind of player Wimbley aspires to be.
I might have been on the phone a lot regarding Taylor, but I'm not the Browns.
Clearly, his age, combined with his $8 million salary and the fact the Browns have traded so many draft picks, made them pause. First-day picks are the lifeblood of a team and its future, with the exception of Travis Wilson, of course.
Void yourself of those top picks over and over and the future is void as well.
Once you start trading future picks, it can snowball, because more future picks are all you have to trade as you go along.
Should the Browns have tried to acquire Taylor?
Tough call. Very tough call.
He would look good wearing Browns orange instead of Redskins burgundy, but there are also some pretty logical reasons he's not in orange and brown.
Which is better than being illogical.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
The benefit of hindsight is always 20-20.
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