I really wanted to see the Browns draft Rey Maualuga last spring, and I was very surprised when they passed on him twice with their first round pick and then with their first pick in the second round. Maualuga went two picks after the Browns drafted Brian Robiskie.

Tony Grossi asks the obvious question – will the Browns be sorry they passed on him? The Browns have to face Maualuga twice per year, starting this weekend against the Bengals.

Maualuga has looked good so far. The kid can tackle and he puts pressure on the quarterback. The Browns obviously could use some play-makers on defense. Meanwhile Robiskie is not even active for most Browns games.

It is, however, way too early to make any sort of judgment on this trade. Robiskie clearly has talent, and the Browns may lose Braylon Edwards next season, so the two rookies taken this year in the second round could be the starters by next season. Also, Maualuga is not a three-down player yet, and that was one of the concerns when he entered the draft.

That said, it will really suck if Maualuga has a monster game this Sunday. The Browns are desperate for good news, and a big game by Maualuga would be another headache for a regime that has gotten off to a terrible start.

Yesterday’s loss was naturally disappointing, but hearing guys like Tony Grossi say that these are the “same old Browns” is just ridiculous.

First, it’s one game against a team that has Super Bowl talent. They got beat by the best running back in the NFL, and they held him in check in the first half. The Vikings made good adjustments and with the Browns offense folding in the second half the defense was put in a tough spot.

Next, the defense is completely new. The Browns got great pressure and they got four sacks. The vanilla defense from the Crennel years is gone. Kamerion Wimbley looks like a real player again, and Shaun Rogers was also a stud again. Also, we saw the cornerbacks playing the receivers very tightly. I thought I was looking at Dixon and Minnifield from the 1980’s. That was very refreshing.

The offense was a problem, and Brady Quinn looked terrible. We can’t draw too many conclusions after just one game, particularly against a tough Vikings defense. That said, he needs to bounce back and start looking like a pro quarterback very quickly. Hopefully he’ll get better with time, but if he doesn’t make real progress by week 4, they need to take a look at Anderson.

It was, however, refreshing to see them run the no-huddle offense. They also introduced a Wildcat formation with Josh Cribbs, though they made a mistake running it twice in the red zone, particularly on the one yard line. Why couldn’t they run a QB sneak with Quinn?

Things change dramatically from week to week on the NFL. The Browns have a new regime and a new starting quarterback, so drawing the Vikings in week one was a tough one. Next week they have the Broncos, we were lucky to beat the lowly Bengals yesterday, so the Browns have a chance to show what they can do next week.

It seems like everyone in Cleveland wants Rey Maualuga in the NFL draft for the Browns, from Tony Grossi to Kenny Roda and most of the other talk radio hosts at WKNR.

Intensity escapes the best of us. The amount of focus required to sustain a level appropriate for something as aggressive as collegiate football defense is hardly something to write off. Where does it come from? Can it be taught or learned? I’d like to hope so, though it seems a bit of a catch-22 in that in order to be intense enough to learn to be intense we must first be intense enough not to need to learn at all.

In any case, for those lucky enough to have it, raises seem to drop out of the sky and skirts appear to fly up into it. Rey Maualuga has it, and that’s gonna have to suffice for now since I am unaware of every single thing he does in his personal time (probably getting that 10% increase I should have had after landing the Gibson account). He’s been using that, along with his considerable speed and strength, to run roughshod over offensive lines and make tackles that look like Cthulu versus Howdy-Doody.

I have to agree here. Maualuga would give the Browns a physical presence in the middle of their defense. Maybe we all just want the Browns to have someone on their team as tough as Troy Polamalu or Ray Lewis, but we need someone like that in this division.

It looks like Aaron Curry might fall to the Browns with the #5 pick, and that would probably be a steal. Curry is a more complete player. That said, I wouldn’t mind seeing them trade down to grab the more physical player.

Great news today from Tony Grossi:

The Browns have all but crossed off Michael Crabtree as a candidate for the No. 5 overall pick, said a source.

The Texas Tech receiver brought a diva attitude on his visit to the club facility last week and did not impress coach Eric Mangini and others, the source said. In fact, Crabtree was described by some in the building as “not nice.” After Crabtree left, Mangini secured last-minute workouts with borderline first-round receivers Hakeem Nicks of North Carolina, Kenny Britt of Rutgers and Mohamed Massaquoi of Georgia.

For weeks I’ve been hearing commentators and bloggers arguing that the Browns had to take Crabtree if they traded Edwards. This thinking made absolutely no sense. Just because a trade would open a need at wide receiver doesn’t mean that you have to burn the #5 pick on a receiver. I was encouraged when news broke that the Browns were working out Hicks and Britt, and now this news suggests Crabtree is off the table.

Tony Grossi is speculating that the Browns might be considering placing a franchise tag on Sean Jones, but I would be shocked if Kokinis goes in that direction.

The Browns have not negotiated with any of their 13 potential free agents and don’t appear willing to use the franchise tag on Sean Jones to protect themselves from losing the safety.

NFL teams have until Thursday to apply the franchise designation to one potential free agent. Doing so would guarantee the player the average of the five highest-paid players at his position and restrict his movement. The franchise number for safeties is $6.342 million. Jones had a base salary in 2008 of $2.145 million.

The Browns have not used the franchise tag since they were reborn in expansion in 1999.

Browns General Manager George Kokinis declined to totally rule out tagging Jones, saying, “Some things in this league are done in the 11th hour.”

Sean Jones was a disaster last season. Maybe his knee was still bothering him, or perhaps Mel Tucker was completely clueless, but there’s no way Jones merits a franchise tag. Next to linebacker, safety is the biggest need on this defense. We hear lots of talk about the corners, but the Browns desperately need an impact safety. It’s time to let Jones go.