CLEVELAND (92.3 The Fan) – After following the Tennessee Titans in shaking up the top of the draft by trading out, the Browns are prepared to make their pick at No. 8 Thursday night, assuming the player they covet is actually still available.
That’s the downside to trading down from No. 2.
With Jared Goff and Carson Wentz presumed to be going to the Rams and Eagles with the first 2 picks, a lot can happen in the 5 slots between the top 2 picks and the Browns making yet another first-round trade all the more plausible.
And they won’t stop there.
Browns executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown is not done wheeling and dealing. He made no secret during the team’s draft preview show, which aired Monday night on 92.3 The Fan, that his phone will be on and he will be taking calls at No. 8 and other picks Thursday night through Saturday.
“There’s some players in this draft that we love,” Brown said. “You’re hoping they either fall to you or you can position yourself to be able to pick up. It doesn’t matter what you do. You’re always greedy and try to get a little bit more and [think], ‘what if we did this? Can we get that guy also? Or do we move back up or move back to put yourself in position to pick up an extra pick and still get that player that you like?'”
Miami at 13 and Tennessee, who slid all the way from 1 to 15 thanks to their trade with Los Angeles, have been the 2 teams mentioned regularly with the desire to move into the top 10. Cleveland has many needs on both sides of the ball and another trade down will provide them with even more options to fill them.
The most glaring need is at receiver and a second trade could allow them to take Ole Miss’ LaQuan Treadwell, Baylor’s Josh Doctson, Notre Dame’s Will Fuller or Ohio State’s Michael Thomas. With the loss of Mitchell Schwartz in free agency, adding an offensive tackle is also a priority and Michigan State’s Jack Conklin, and Ohio State’s Taylor Decker are quality options in the teens with Laremy Tunsil of Ole Miss and Notre Dame’s Ronnie Staley expected to be long gone in the top 10.
The Browns enter the draft primed to make multiple trades not just at 8. Cleveland holds the first selections on days 2 and 3 with picks 32, 99 and 100. Many think that the Browns are only willing to trade back because of the whole analytics narrative that they must collect as many draft picks as possible, but that isn’t the case.
“We’ll go get a player,” Brown said. “Our leaning is to not use multiple picks on 1 player, but we are not afraid to go get a player if we see one there. We do trust our scouts to find players wherever we’re picking at that value but if we see a guy that’s falling that we feel is a value, we’ll go get him.”
The Browns have 12 selections – for now – including 6 in the top 100. Only the Titans have better value with their slotting of picks and Cleveland moving out of No. 32 Friday evening and at No. 99 or 100 Saturday afternoon seems to be a forgone conclusion.
“There’s some players we like at each slot,” Brown said. “I think if we can come away with 4 or 5 guys in the first 3 rounds that we really like we feel like it would be a success. That’s very much a possibility. We got [picks] 99 and 100, it’ll be interesting to see what that turns into and see what interest there is for pick 32.
“We think there will be 3 or 4 players there that we really like and we’ll be entertaining phone calls I’m sure overnight Thursday night to see what interest there might be in people moving up.”
Flexibility is the most valuable asset the Browns have entering this year’s draft as they overhaul their roster and they have plenty of it. They’ll also look to use it at add even more of it for 2017 and 2018 as well.
