CLEVELAND, OHIO (TheOBR.com) - Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans! Hope you're having a great Sunday morning. It's one of my favorite times of the week, dating back to the days when I looked forward to a Sunday morning paper and reading the comics in color. For those of you who don't remember the glory days of dead trees being used to convey information, I'll just tell you that a Sunday morning with coffee was awesome, and if you missed that experience, there's simply no suitable replacement these days.
This Massive Morning Missive is dedicated to one of my sportswriting heroes, Hal Lebovitz, who always had a fantastic column on Sundays in the News-Herald. I wish I had a tenth of his insight, information, and writing skills.
THE DAILY BLOVIATION
This morning, you find the humble narrator of this bloviation in a rather typical state of confusion when it comes to the NFL Draft. See, I'm not one of those guys whose lot in life is to watch "tape" (i.e., YouTube videos) of NFL draft prospects all year long. There are people who do that, and form strong opinions about these players, but I don't have that sort of available time, nor the practiced experience of being able to evaluate players. I'm too busy doing whatever it is that I do here, which remains stubbornly undefined, yet takes up all my time.
What I do, though, is watch a lot of college football on Saturdays, which are effectively my "day off" in the Autumn months. I love it, and will especially watch as many Big Ten games as I can. It's not unusual for me to be watching college football starting at Noon and basically going until I fall asleep.
So, while I can't claim expertise on how three-cone-drill times relate to the ability of a player to catch a football, I am able to recall players who impressed me out of the muddled mush of my brain from what it recorded on fall afternoons.
Carnell Tate
Carnell Tate gradually completes a 40-yard dash (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
One of those is Carnell Tate, a wide receiver for my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes. He did a lot of things well, such as catch touchdowns, not drop passes, and fight off defensive backs for footballs even when he wasn't wide open.
Now, I'm a Buckeyes homer, admittedly but I'm not excessively stupid, nor has anything but caffeine addled my brain so far this morning. So, I am convinced that my conclusion that Carnell Tate is a really good football player is somewhat accurate.
Whether he's better than other potential draft picks at the #6 slot for the Browns is another, more complicated question, since I can't from memory tell you Spencer Fano's arm length or whatnot and compare the two. But I am convinced that Carnell Tate is really good at football.
Which brings me to the subject of the NFL Combine, and Tate's performance there. It appears that a lot of people are unimpressed with Tate's lack of running a 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds. Instead, he ran an excruciating, tortoise-like 4.5 seconds, a 40-time that made some observers conclude that it was alright to write him off.
No less of a wide receiver authority than Bills' GM Brandon Beane, said he would never take Tate high in the first round because he's so slow. Granted, this particular GM hasn't been able to find a draftable wide receiver since picking Khalil Shakir in the fifth round in 2022 and is lamasted by the Bills' fan base for not providing wide receivers for Josh Allen, but the comment made some waves.
Still, somehow, Tate was able to do things like this. And this.
Now, of course, as a Buckeyes fan, I'm fully aware that Tate rarely was covered by the opponent's best cornerback, given the powerful gravitational pull of stud wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. But Tate repeatedly showed that he could take advantage of that, and still performed at a high level when Smith wasn't in the lineup.
All of this goes to the mind-warping lens of the NFL Draft Combine, where athletes are poked, prodded, and judged on the basic elements of how high they can jump, how long their fingers are, and other things that have some relationship to how good they might be at playing football.
But there are other things that wide receiver do as well, like run accurate routes, elbow cornerbacks, and block defenders which I'm struggling to find analogous to tests the Combine performs.
I don't know if Carnell Tate makes sense for the Cleveland Browns at the #6 pick. Perhaps that lack of speed means he can't get as much separation at the next level, and lack of that elite speed is his professional achilles heel.
All I know is that Carnell Tate is really good at playing in actual football games. I wouldn't be unhappy if the Browns select him.
Have a good one! GO BROWNS!
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THE LIFT
Positive news from the world of sports and beyond...
- Dozens of Strangers Form Parade for Man With Cancer–Driving Classic Cars Past his Home for One Last Surprise (WATCH)
People doing nice things for other people is what The Lift is all about, and this tale of a community doing a nice things for an ailing resident is right up our all. All it needs is a dog involved. Right now, my dog is busy protecting my household from the possible intrusion of a neighbor's dog. Loudly. And repeatedly. But I'm sure she would pitch in needed, because dogs are like that. At any rate, nice story.
WRAPPING UP
When not gearing up to demonstrate his earth-shacking 103.3 40-yard-dash, Barry McBride is the Publisher and Founder of the OBR and bloviates this nonsense every morning. You can follow him on Twitter @barrymcbride or write him at barry@theobr.com if you are so compelled.
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