Browns choose to build defense

Come on Browns fans. The irony can't be lost on many of you.
Isn't it funny, now that a new sheriff is in town, that the Browns will be building toward a Super Bowl contender based on the model set by, you guessed it, the World Champion Baltimore Ravens?
I'll give you a minute to let that sink in.
OK.
Doesn't it strike you funny that The New Browns, Take II, will focus on defense rather than the high-powered West Coast-style offense everybody in Northeast Ohio expected to be modeled after the San Francisco 49ers? It shouldn't. The Browns will be better off going defense rather than offense.
Passed running back: Conjecture was that the Browns probably would favor a running back or wide receiver on Draft Day 2001 to help jump start Cleveland's awful offense. But, the Browns couldn't afford to turn in that direction.
"We cannot ignore what is happening throughout the league," Browns' CEO Carmen Policy said, just after Cleveland selected Florida's 312-pound run-stuffer, Gerard Warren.
"It could not be more forcefully or dramatically established than what happened in the Super Bowl."
For those with short memories, the Ravens won the Super Bowl, 34-7, over the New York Giants, allowing New York just 66 yards rushing.
Built around: The Ravens built their top-ranked defense around 330-pound tackle Sam Adams and 300-and-who-knows-how-much tackle Tony Siragusa, as well as ends Rob Burnett and Michael McRary, and NFL MVP linebacker Ray Lewis.
The Browns will do it with Warren alongside former No. 1 overall pick Courtney Brown, Stalin Colinet (moved to end), and fellow lineman Orpheus Roye and Keith McKenzie, as well as linebackers Wali Rainer, Jamir Miller and free-agent addition Dwayne Rudd.
One reason Cleveland couldn't pass on Warren was an expected run on defensive players, which turned out to be true. Eight of the first 13 players taken in the 2001 NFL draft were on defense, and 16 players in the first round were on that side of the ball.
"Teams draft for years and years and never come up with guys who can dominate the line of scrimmage," new Browns coach Butch Davis said. "There will not be this kind of quality defensive linemen in the draft very often. We felt that Gerard was at the top of that class."
"When you think about the defensive line with Courtney Brown, the first pick in the draft, and Gerard Warren, third pick in the draft, you start to really get excited thinking about a tandem situation where we hope to have two great players," Policy added.
Among best: When Davis speaks of Warren, his name is mentioned in the same breath as Charles Haley, Leon Lett and Russell Maryland, all who played key roles in winning championships in Dallas. Davis was a Cowboys defensive assistant then.
"He brings a dimension that a team has to have if they are going to be the type of team that wants to play in the Super Bowl," Davis said of Warren.
The new coach also loves the flexibility of Warren, who, along with Brown and many other players on the Browns defense, will be asked to play multiple roles based on key matchups. "It will be a formidable group," Davis said.
"When you are in there playing with the players that play 110 percent like Orpheus [Roye], [Keith] McKenzie and Courtney [Brown], he will have to play to that same level," said Dwight Clark, Browns director of football operations. "This team will come to expect that from him. I think he is a franchise-type defensive tackle."
Warren doesn't boast so much about himself, but he did make one promise.
"Success has to start at some point. I am not coming here and saying that I am an instant success," he said. "Success is something that I strive for. I am looking to help this team step it up and hopefully play for a Super Bowl one day."
XGeorge Welker is a sportswriter for The Vindicator.