Browns ace the draft
That’s not a sentence we’ve typed in the recent history of the NFL Draft. But we have to give credit where it’s due. Cleveland made the obvious decision to pick up the consensus top player in the draft in the form of Myles Garrett No. 1 overall. We can’t give GM Sashi Brown and Co. too much credit for that.
It’s what the Browns did later in the first round and moving forward to Friday that should have fans of the long downtrodden franchise excited.
Cleveland moved out of the 12th pick with Houston, adding the Texans first rounder in 2018 in the process. It then used the Texans’ original first-round pick (25th overall) for the ultra-athletic Jabrill Peppers. Sure there are concerns about where Peppers might play at the next level. A diluted drug test at the NFL Scouting Combine also concerned teams. But he’s among the most-dynamic athletes in the entire draft. He can play strong safety and linebacker. Heck, here’s a dude that can rush the passer.
Following the pick, Browns head coach Hue Jackson also indicated that the team plans to use Peppers on offense at times. That added more upper-level talent to an offense that lacks much of it at the skill positions. Peppers is a football player. And if utilized correctly, will have a strong NFL career.
Then, tripling down in the first round, Cleveland moved up to the 29th pick to get whoever is under center a potential dominating tight end in David Njoku. At 6-foot-4 and 246, the Miami (F) product will be a massive target in between the hashes. He’s also someone that boasts a huge catch radius and can be physically dominating against smaller defensive backs. It’s a perfect fit for a team that will likely be relying on a young quarterback here soon.
Speaking of young quarterbacks, Cleveland used its second-round pick on former Notre Dame signal caller DeShone Kizer. Long bandied about as a potential first-round pick, Kizer fell to Day 2 following a bad performance at the combine. But make no mistake about it, he’s an elite-level talent with tremendous upside. While Kizer will likely have to wait a year or two to see the field, he could very well end up being Cleveland’s franchise quarterback.
The Browns were able to add all this tremendous talent while picking up another first-round pick in 2018. Here’s a team that now boasts five picks in the first two rounds of next year’s draft. It’s going to be a long-term rebuilding process for the Browns, but they expedited it to an extent over the course of the three-day event in Philadelphia.