The Browns have a league-leading ten draft picks in this years' draft. They may be subject to a loss of one of these draft picks as a consequence of textgate, but here they are as they currently stand:
Round 1: pick 12 overall 12
Round 1: pick 19 overall 19 (from Buffalo)
Round 2: pick 11 overall 43
Round 3: pick 13 overall 77
Round 4: pick 12
Round 4: pick 16 (from Buffalo)
Round 5: pick 11
Round 6: pick 13
Round 6: pick 26 (from Baltimore)
Round 7: pick 12
The Browns should be able to put together some players as six of the picks come in the first four rounds. The compensatory selections will be decided in March, so the overall numbers won't be known until then. The draft will take place on April 30. Last year, these were the picks by Cleveland:
Round 1: Justin Gilbert, CB from Oklahoma State (the other OSU)
Round 1: Johnny Manziel, QB from Texas A&M
Round 2: Joel Bitonio, OG from Nevada
Round 3: Christian Kirksey, ILB from Iowa
Round 3: Terrance West, RB from Towson
Round 4: Pierre Desir, CB from Lindenwood
Looking back on this year, which isn't a ton of time, I would give out one A, two B's, one C, one D, and one giant F. Bitonio gets the A. He's done a good job at solidifying the left side of that O-line. With Joe Thomas and Alex Mack there, it's not asking too much. Still, to come in as a rookie and be a solid addition to any O-line, that's impressive.
Kirksey and Desir get the B's. Both had limited playing time, but in part thanks to lower expectations, did fine as subs. West got injured but did well up until then, so he gets the C. Gilbert did well at times, but it took him a while and a lot of bad plays to get there. He underperformed massively for being a top ten pick and the #1 corner in the draft. D. Obviously Manziel gets the F.
Heading into this season, the Browns biggest needs are at QB, O-line depth (especially on that right side), WR, D-line, OLB, and CB. Cleveland will need to grab a QB at some point in this draft, especially if they let Hoyer go. Winston is a long shot, Mariota just below that, and every other QB will probably be available to them. It all depends on when they take which QB. They should be able to address either the O-line spot or WR with their first pick with the option of taking a QB with their second. Both picks again are in the first round. Their next four picks will probably be determined by what happens with their players who are free agents this season. If we lose Jordan Cameron to the Chargers as many predict, we'll probably grab a TE. If we can't re-sign Rubin or Sheard, then we'll probably grab a pass rusher or two with these four picks. We have enough of a rotation at RB and our safety spots aren't priorities (unless we can't re-sign Gipson), so you probably won't see those go early. With ten draft picks and a lot of free agents potentially leaving, a lot of the draft depends on who we keep in free agency.
But Pettine is a defensive-minded head coach. If we keep most or all of the players, especially on offense, we can expect a defensive-heavy draft this year. Plus, Farmer has proven he can go out and get good players in free agency so we may be adding some from other teams. It'll be hard to sell offensive players on coming to Cleveland with the current QB situation, but the defense is tops in the league. McQuistan didn't work out as well as the Browns hoped, so we may land a veteran O-lineman to strengthen that right side. The more the Browns can grab in free agency, the more likely they'll put some kind of package together, even if it's just to move up a round or two in the draft, to get a player that they're keying in on. That's what the Browns should do; we have a lot of really good pieces, pro bowl level players. Thomas, Mack, Cameron (if they keep him), Taylor, Kruger, Dansby, Haden, Whitner, and Gipson (again, if we keep him) are all pro bowlers or at that level. That's almost half our starters! What keeps us from being a great team? None of those players play QB. We need a QB, and I think the front office realizes it.
I love Farmer and Pettine. I think they're both doing a great job, aside from Farmer's illegal texting. I think the owner, Haslem, is doing a tremendous job as well. He comes from Steelers pedigree; let's face it, Browns fans. We may hate the Steelers, and we do, but they know how to run a successful organization. We need more people like the people they have in management. Haslem is one of those guys.
If the Browns can manage to find a QB and stick with him this year, we can do okay. We play in a tough division, but the wild card isn't out of reach. We've shown we can beat all the teams in our division, and if we can beat them, we can beat others. Aside from the obvious six divisional games, Cleveland has a tough schedule: Denver, Oakland, Arizona, San Fransisco, and Tennessee at home with Kansas City, St. Louis, San Diego, Seattle, and the New York Jets on the road. Looking at the schedule before the off-season, I'd say that the Jets, Titans, Raiders, and Rams are all very winnable games. We finished ahead of all of them. San Fransisco has a new coach and barely finished ahead of us. San Diego and Kansas City aren't that much ahead, either. We won two divisional games last year while being close in others, so saying we could win three isn't a stretch. Those are fairly to very winnable games next season without any big upsets. For years, the Browns beat the super bowl champion of the year before: Giants, Saints, etc.
There's a lot optimism in Cleveland concerning the Browns, there always has been. In the past, though, our hopes were demolished around week 4. This time we have a foundation to build off of. We have some players, we have a good owner-GM-coaching line. We just need to find the guy to lead the franchise into the sunset.
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