The Next Step Is The Hardest

When Savage got to the office, he was despondent. And fuming. "Because we tried to get too cute, we not only lost this guy, but now we're going have to play him twice a year!" he told his staff.

But there was a hang-up in the Cincinnati deal over the $1 million bonus Rogers was owed on March 1. The Lions wanted Cincinnati to pay it, but the Bengals insisted that Rogers pass his physical first; the Browns had been willing to pay the bonus, no strings attached. At 3 p.m. the NFL said it would not allow the trade to go through unless there was a binding agreement on the bonus. The Bengals held firm, as did Millen. "If I'm paying him the million, he's playing for us," said Millen, who had another team, the Bills, waiting to trade third- and fifth-round picks for Rogers in case the Cincy deal blew up.

By then Savage was desperately trying to reach Millen. He left a cellphone message saying the Browns would accept the original terms: a three and Bodden for Rogers.

Millen returned the call. "Don't go back to Cincinnati," Savage said. "We'll do the deal right now." Millen said yes, and Rogers was a Brown.

By sunup the next day Savage had completed trades for Rogers and Williams—filling two big needs but also eradicating the top of Cleveland's draft—and signed Anderson to a three-year, $24 million deal that had $7 million in bonuses due over the last two years. ( Lewis had been given a three-year extension on Feb. 21.) Thus, if the quarterback's 2007 season turns out to be a fluke, the Browns will be able to cut him after a year without taking a huge cap hit.

Now the question was, With some big holes still left on the depth chart, could Savage fill them with four low-round picks?

MARCH 17
ANN ARBOR, MICH.

OVER A St. Patrick's Day lunch at the Brown Jug, a University of Michigan campus hangout, Braylon Edwards, the former Wolverine, picked the brain of one of his off-season workout buddies: current Wolverine Michael Phelps. Swimming, Phelps told him, is the ultimate cardio workout. A light went on over Edwards's head: You can't sprain an ankle in the pool. You can't wear down your joints. Edwards quizzed Phelps on setting up a workout. "This is what I'll do to stay in shape between minicamp in June and training camp in July," Edwards said.

APRIL 23
LARGO, MD.

THIS WAS crazy. Instead of huddling with his scouts in Berea and massaging the draft board, Savage hopped a 10 a.m. flight to Baltimore, rented a car, drove 24 miles to Prince George's Community College, and shook hands with one of the most marginal prospects in the 2008 draft: outside linebacker Alex Hall of Division II St. Augustine's College, in North Carolina.