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SPORTSBIZ -- JOEL HAMMOND The Blueprint Blog entry: March 16, 2010, 2:04 pm     |     Author: JOEL HAMMOND If the Browns are looking for a blueprint on how to spend their wealth of draft picks, may I offer my beloved Green Bay Packers as an example? The Packers, using the uncapped 2010 season to their advantage, signed four of their own key free agents over the past week or so to salary-cap friendly deals. Let me explain: Safety Nick Collins, a Pro Bowler, signed a three-year, $23.4 million extension, but he'll get $14 million of that this season. Nose tackle Ryan Pickett signed a four-year deal valued at $28 million, but he'll get $10 million of it this season. The Packers also re-signed tackles Mark Tauscher and Chad Clifton, though I couldn't find cash figures on those. Clifton's deal was reported at three years and $20 million, and there's a good chance it's structured like the above two. The moral of the story: If a miracle happens and the NFL and its players union come to an agreement reinstalling the salary cap, the Packers still have plenty of room with which to work — and have their key players under long-term contracts. How does this relate to the Browns? I've argued for a while now that stockpiling all of these draft picks — they just picked up three more with this week's trades of Kamerion Wimbley and Brady Quinn, though only one is for this year — does the team no good if it can't spin them into trades up the draft order and subsequent impact players. New team president Mike Holmgren and general manager Tom Heckert have to tell coach Eric Mangini that if he doesn't like coaching a headcase, then they'll find someone who can deal with it. Guess what? Not everyone's going to be Josh Cribbs. Someone's going to be Braylon Edwards. It's the coach's job to deal with it, to get that player to perform. A bunch of fifth- and sixth-round picks does you no good if they turn out like Baba Oshinowo, who, as The Plain Dealer noted this week, was the extra pick former general manager Savage got for allowing Baltimore to move up and grab Haloti Ngata. Savage took Wimbley a pick later, and Oshinowo played two games. So what's the point in all these picks? Combine Randy Lerner's money and no salary cap with other teams' desire to save money without a salary minimum and trade up to land impact players. Then, after drafting two top players in the top 10, structure their salaries like the Packers did: Backloaded, heavy on rookie bonuses and very little risk in future years. That way, the team hopefully has high-impact, young players in the fold and won't be hamstrung in the case of a re-introduced salary cap.  Subscribe          Print          E-mail