Kokinis Press Conference Yields Little

Most of us were fairly confused when we caught wind that Browns GM George Kokins was planning to hold a pre-draft press conference. It wasn’t like he was going to waltz in with a full color draft board and phone records of all of his staff. But given that he did not have too much to say during his introduction, it was good that he got out in front of the media to answer a few questions.

The OBR set the scene pretty well. A tight-lipped GM that offered very little in terms of detail, but did attempt to address any questions that were asked.  A few takeaways…

– Both Derek Anderson and Jamal Lewis had off-season “procedures.”  Jamal had some cleaning up of the ankle.  D.A. had to rehabilitate from his MCL injury.  Kokinis would not say if Anderson had surgery or not – for obvious reasons – but did say that both players are 100 percent. 

– Kokinis frequently mentioned that the team has plenty of “options” with the draft.  Personally, I think that it means that they have plenty of “holes to fill,” but whatever works.  Obviously, he’s open to trading down, but will not hesitate to take a player with the fifth pick if there is a consensus feeling about said player.

– When asked if the team is rebuilding, Kokinis would not answer yes or no (common throughout).  Instead, he offered up that they will try to win as many games as possilble.  As opposed to the team that doesn’t try to win as many games as possible. 

– Kokinis discussed three players: Aaron Curry, Michael Crabrtree and Ray Malaluga.  All three instances were baited by the specific question, and there was no insight as to who is valued more than their counterparts.

All in all, I think the press conference was a good move.  It’s helthy PR for the team if they get out in front of the media.  Kokinis offered little details, but what can we expect?  He seems to be on track with the “best player available” frame of thinking, which is good as we have a team that can ill afford to reach for a player at any stage of the game.  I assume this means that OL could be an option at fifth-overall, but we’ll see what happens.

Other news and notes:

– The Washington Post claims that the Redskins would like to move up to the third or fourth pick to select Mark Sanchez.  Now, I’m not a GM, but if Sanchez is there at five, this seems like a good team to keep on the speed dial. 

– The same article lists Brian Orakpo as the Redskins’ top pick if they cannot move up.  If another team thinks they can get Orakpo at 13, should we be even considering him at five?

– The New York Daily News reports that the Giants have no intentions of tradingMathias Kiwanuka to Cleveland.  I assume this was brought up again with the whole month-late Yahoo! post.  It was my understanding that this deal was never a possibility anyways, and he was just a player that the team was interested in for his pass-rushing abilities.