The Browns made their first significant roster move of the off-season earlier today when they traded Kellen "I'm 'a kill 'em" Winslow to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This opens the door for my boy Martin Rucker, I've been talking about Rucker since his senior year at Mizzou. The guy has great hands and is built very similarly to Winslow. (Rucker is 6'4 260 compared Winslow's 6'4 248.) Their 40 times are similar (Rucker ran a 4.63 and Winslow ran a 4.51). If you've never seen Rucker play check out his highlight reel. Winslow will now get to catch passes from one of the 7 McCown brothers.
Assuming that the Browns got a 3rd or 4th rounder for Winslow, I think this is a good trade. A fifth or sixth round pick it's not bad. Randy Moss went for a 4th round pick when he was traded to the Flying Elvi.
A couple guys that might be around at the end of the 3rd round in this upcoming draft. Brian Robiskie (Ohio State), PJ Hill (Wisconsin), Ian Johnson (Boise State), Derrick Williams (Penn State) and those are just offensive players.
What this also does is affect the Browns cap space. Maybe with the 6 million or so that they save they can go out and sign Ray Lewis, Derrick Ward, James Farrior or re-sign Sean Jones, which I think they will do anyway.
Until we get more, which I'm sure we will tomorrow, it's hard to say what the trade will do, but I definitely am on Mangini's side on this one. Winslow was not good for the locker room, and I'm not talking about the fact he had staph.
What's next??? I was really hoping to package Winslow and DA for something. Now that Shaun "weight issues" Rogers wants out after a great year, they have to trade him. If you outright release him, you just gave up your shutdown corner and a third round pick for a Pro-Bowler who helped the team to a 4-12 record and then complained that he can't make weight. Heck, Braylon probably wants as well, since he is a marked-man coming from Michigan. I actually could see Mangini bringing in Laveranues Coles, who was released yesterday.
I think this trade is going to bring on a lot of roster changes, some that we may or may not agree with, but this first one is a good start.