Former Devil Ray Farmer Picks Johnny Manziel For The Cleveland Browns

Duke football has improved dramatically, thanks largely to the integrity and character shown by David Cutcliffe. What you see from that guy is what you get. He's about as good as you could hope for in a coach, particularly in a coach who coaches teenagers and young men. We really couldn't be happier. You could offer Duke Jimbo Fisher or Nick Saban and most Duke fans would say no thanks.

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They're great coaches, but Cutcliffe is the perfect fit. Neither of those guys could do what Cutcliffe has done at Duke, largely because they don't really think it's possible without a lot more compromises.

Cutcliffe has done a phenomenal job, but the one place where the improvement hasn't shown up yet is at the end - in the draft.

So this year, like the preceding years, we don't follow the draft very closely. It just doesn't involve Duke much.

It may soon.

As far as other ACC picks go, Clemson's Sammy Watkins was the highest pick, going at #4 to Buffalo.

UNC's Eric Ebron went to the top of the Empire State building, proposed (she said yes), came down and went #10 to Detroit.

Aaron Donald of Pitt went at #13 to St. Louis; Virginia Tech's Kyle Fuller went one pick later to Chicago.

Notre Dame's Zack Martin went to Dallas at #16.

Kelvin Benjamin of FSU went to the Panthers at #28.

We could be wrong, but we're pretty sure this is the guy that former ECU coach and local commentator Steve Logan ripped up one side and down the other. He was insistent that he would hurt team chemistry and be hard to coach, that he was highly egotistical and about himself.

We'll see.

Duke's primary relationship to this draft is via Cleveland's GM Ray Farmer, who is attempting to rebuild a team which has been pretty thoroughly ridiculed lately.

In his first draft as GM, Farmer took CB Justin Gilbert out of Oklahoma State at #9 and Johnny Manziel at #22.

Manziel is probably the most controversial player in the draft, with people questioning his size, his fundamentals and his ability to take NFL-level punishment.

Nonsense, says Logan, a man who knows a thing or two about quarterbacks. He says Manziel has things no one can teach, and he's probably right.

Still, the NFL is a different world and nobody goes 4-12 and loses seven straight with a great offensive line. He's going to get beat up.

But what could be more fun than watching him, and what better fans for him than the Dawg Pound? That's a marriage made in heaven.

A lot of teams passed on Manziel. We'd love it if Farmer struck gold.