Cleveland Browns: If you had another shot at the 1999 expansion draft, who would you pick?

Now that our coaching staff is set and we are starting all over...again..., I started thinking about Tony Grossi's recent article in the Plain Dealer. In his article, he wondered what the Browns would be like if we would have drafted Kurt Warner in the expansion draft. It has been ten years now, and we have been to the playoffs once. Butch Davis was our coach, and we lost a close one in Pittsburgh. Actually, it was a heart-breaking loss because we were winning most of the game.

As I read on, I wanted to know more about the expansion draft.

So, who did the Browns draft in 1999? Keep in mind-since we were the only expansion team, we were the only ones drafting. The other teams in the league needed to select five players or so to be eligible in this expansion draft. When I looked at the players available, some of them looked promising. Some were big-named players, some were over-the-hill, and others were high-priced vets. Anyway, if you have the chance, look who we drafted. Looking back, those players really never helped our team. It was a loss.

Now, who didn't the Browns pick in this expansion draft? DE Reggie White of the Packers, DE Neil Smith of the Broncos, LB James Francis of the Bengals, QB Jay Fiedler of the Vikings, KR-WR Desmond Howard of the Raiders, T Will Wolford of the Steelers, QB Kurt Warner of the Rams, and CD Chris Dishman of the Redskins. There were other quality players, but these caught my eye. And yes, you could debate with me that some of these players are over-priced or over-the-hill. You could tell me that some of these players are overrated, but really, look at the list of players that we drafted. They truly didn't help our team, and yes...our stadium sold out with only a few popular names on the roster...but I truly believe that some of these undrafted players could have helped our team. They could have been the building blocks of our franchise. Maybe-just maybe-we wouldn't be in the hole that we are in now.

Mangini--make us winners again. The anticipation is great, most of us have hope, and all of us want to believe.