Saints made first choice in second round with OT Charles Brown

Being this season’s defending Super Bowl champions, the New Orleans Saints are trying to make the best choices with their late draft picks. With the 32nd pick of the first round, they drafted cornerback Patrick Robinson, and then on Friday night, with still the last pick of the second round, they got offensive tackle Charles Brown from USC.

“This was a case of best available player, and the best available player for us on our board by far,” Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said. “There’s nothing wrong with stockpiling offensive linemen—and tackles in particular—and that’s part of our thinking here.”

The Saints have already had as many as four left tackles and they still added a new one because they believe tackles are usually versatile and can be moved to most other positions on offensive line and can still give good performance. Plus, the addition of rookie tackle like Charles Brown gives the Saints more advantages in contract negotiation with restricted free agent Jammal Brown, who threatens not to return for offseason workouts without a new long-team contract.

With height of 6-foot-5 and weight of 303 pounds, Charles Brown started his college football career as a tight end. He later converted to be a tackle and started two of his college seasons. He was first team All-Pac 10 in 2009 and was the 10th offensive tackle taken in the draft. He does have the strength and skills to play for the Super Bowl champions team, but at the beginning of his professional football career, the young rookie still has a lot to learn and needs to get stronger and work more on his technique before being given some playing time in his first season of wearing New Orleans Saints jersey.

Browns plan to draft a quarterback in middle rounds

Although the Cleveland Browns are in urgent need of a productive quarterback and determined to get on through any possible ways, they just do not expect the very quarterback they want could be found in the first two rounds of this year.

According to Browns’ team President Mike Holmgren, it would be pretty hard to use the second-round pick to get an effective quarterback that would be able to help improve the offensive line, but the team is determined to get on this year and so the chance could be in the middle rounds.

The Browns has signed veteran quarterback Jake Delhomme and made a trade with the Seattle Seahawks to acquire quarterback Seneca Wallace, but both are over or around 30 years old and a young quarterback that could develop into a franchise leader has been always what the Browns look for since they returned to NFL in 1999. Previously they had two such quarterbacks but none had lived up to expectation. Brady Quinn taken in the first round in 2007 was traded to the Denver Broncos last week, and the first-overall draft pick in 1999 Tim Couch spent only five seasons without much production before taking off his Browns jersey.

Redskins want to retain QB Campbell

Although the Washington Redskins are still planning to use a high draft pick to get a new quarterback, they won’t just let quarterback Jason Campbell take off his Redskins jersey for new job elsewhere. New Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan has told Campbell to return for 2010 season.

"The plan is that I’m going to be here," Campbell told ESPN on Thursday. "(Shanahan) told me that he liked how I’d handled everything over the past couple of years and the whole conversation was real positive."

The Redskins offensive line was considered to be one of the worst in 2009 season and Campbell was often criticized for not throwing downfield. He was sacked 43 times, third-most in the NFL. However he still managed to complete a career-high 64.5 percent of his passes with 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.