Peering into the draft crystal ball

Well, that didn’t take long.

The dust from the National Football League’s annual college draft has hardly settled and the first 2017 mock drafts have arrived.

Several Web sites have already checked in with a crystal-ball look at what will go down next April in whatever city the NFL decides to move to after two years in Chicago.

And for Browns fans, there’s good news and bad news. First the bad news. The early, highly premature mock analysts are using Las Vegas oddsmakers as a measuring tool to determine the draft order next year.

Why is that bad news? Because those so-called experts have made the Browns prohibitive favorites to win no games – subject to change, of course – and ultimately wind up with the No. 1 draft pick next season for the first time since the 2000 lottery.

That bears repeating. The Browns are early favorites in no games this season. Another season of misery. But that, believe it or not, is also the good news.

If the upcoming season unfolds the way Vegas sees it, it means the Browns will have first crack at the draft in a year when many potential future superstars will be on all the boards.

Let’s face it. The Browns are going to stink this season. They are going to be embarrassingly bad. So bad, in fact, they top every early mock that has been released. And there is a near consensus as to whom the club will take. (Unless, of course, they trade down. Just kidding. Can’t you take a joke?)

Rob Rang of CBS Sports, Steve Palazzolo Pro Football Focus, the guys at Walter Football, Matt Miller at the Bleacher Report and SB Nation’s Dan Kadar all believe the Browns will take Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, odds-on favorite to win the next Heisman Trophy.

Chris Burke over at Sports Illustrated disagrees, but believes the Browns will, indeed, chose a quarterback. His choice is Miami of Florida’s Brad Kaaya, who plays in a pro-style offense for the Hurricanes and is more NFL ready than Watson.

Besides, Burke noted, Kaaya is a couple of inches taller than the 6-2, 210-pound Watson, whose production numbers dwarf those of the Miami quarterback.

What makes the next draft that much more intriguing is the Browns probably will have two cracks in the top 10, holding Philadelphia’s pick as a result of the deal that enabled the Eagles to take Carson Wentz this year. (Unless, of course, the Browns trade . . . oh never mind.)

A variety of reasons prompted the aforementioned analysts to select Watson as the top choice.

Wrote Rang: If Cleveland is drafting No. 1 overall, the experiments with Robert Griffin III and rookie Cody Kessler were a failure. Watson lacks ideal size, but has the arm, athleticism and moxie to potentially turn into a franchise quarterback.

Palazzolo: (Watson) has the strong arm to drive the ball into tight windows, though it’s his touch on two-level throws that impresses most. There’s still room to grow from a quarterbacking standpoint as he can learn to get through his reads better and his accuracy wanes at times.”

Kadar: Watson’s career arc has him hurtling toward the Heisman Trophy. . . . Beyond his deep-ball delivery, he is an impressive product.

Miller: Cody Kessler is not your quarterback of the future. . . . The future will come when Deshaun Watson enters the draft. . . . He is not so different from RGIII other than he is more accurate and hasn’t been hit with major injury-related setbacks to this point of his career.

Walter Football: College football’s version of Russell Wilson. . . . The sky’s the limit for him.

Countered Burke: Playing percentages here. There is no question Deshaun Watson will be a Heisman favorite. . . . There’s also little question that on paper, Kaaya – who is 6-4 and plays in a pro-style scheme – better fits the NFL prototype.

While all but Burke agree on Watson as the top pick, there is a division of opinions with that second choice, which could be as high as seventh and as low as 12^th.

Rang and Kadar agree the Browns will take Louisiana State running back Leonard Fournette. And why not? Fournette probably will be Watson’s top challenger for the Heisman. The 6-1, 230-pounder ran for an amazing 1,953 yards and 22 touchdowns last season, backing up a 10-touchdown, 1,034-yard performance as a freshman.

Palazzolo likes Michigan State defensive end Malik McDowell as the second pick, Walter Football favors Florida State running back Dalvin Cook (Fournette will be gone by then in its mock), Burke likes offensive tackle Roderick Johnson, who blocks for Cook at FSU, and Miller thinks Ohio State inside linebacker Raekwon McMillan would look spiffy in a Browns uniform.

By now, you’re probably saying to yourself it’s ridiculous, ludicrous, preposterous and every other adjective ending in ous to be discussing what Miller called his “Way Too Early Predictions.”

Of course, it’s way too early to make prognostications such as these. But it sure is fun to talk about them. It’s the kind of fodder that feeds the NFL public relations machine continuously and keeps the league in conversations virtually on a year-around basis.

Never a dull moment with this monolithic enterprise.

Draft weekend notebook

One position was conspicuously absent in the 14-player haul the Browns took away from last weekend’s National Football League college draft.

Sashi Brown, Hue Jackson, Paul DePodesta and Andrew Berry filled holes via the lottery all over the roster except one: running back.

Only five names have an RB next to them on the current roster: Isaiah Crowell, Duke Johnson Jr. and three guys who probably won’t be on the roster when the Browns open the season in Philadelphia on Sept. 11.

So why no running back? The Browns didn’t exactly blow the opposition away infantry style last season. In fact, Crowell and Johnson ran for 1,085 of the club’s 1,529 yards in 2015, an average of just 95½ yards a game.

The Browns ran the ball only 38.5% of the time last season and scored a measly four touchdowns, all by Crowell. That’s not Hue Jackson type football. His football is much more 52-48 pass to run than 62-38.

So again, why no running back? Could it be Jackson sees Crowell and Johnson, two entirely different runners stylistically, a little differently than the previous Cleveland coaching regime?

Maybe he sees them more like Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard, the running tandem he had as offensive coordinator in Cincinnati last season. Hill, the 6-2, 235-pound banger between the tackles, rushed for 794 yards and scored 11 touchdowns. Crowell is 5-11, 225 pounds and a between-the tackles kind of guy..

The shifty 5-10, 210-pound Johnson gave the Browns a dimension they haven’t had for several seasons as a receiving threat out of the backfield. The rookie was the team’s third leading receiver last season with 61 catches for 534 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He picked up another 379 yards on the ground.

Bernard, a shifty 5-9, 205-pound scatback, was a little more versatile for the Bengals, racking up 730 yards on the ground and another 472 through the air on 42 catches.

Overall, the Bengals rushed for 1,805 yards (113 a game) last season and produced 13 touchdowns.

So one can see there are a couple of distinct similarities between the two teams. The big difference, however, lies in the guys who play in front of them. The Cincinnati offensive line is one of the best in the league. The Browns cannot echo that boast, especially now that Alex Mack and Mitchell Schwartz are gone.

It will be very interesting to see just how Jackson formulates his offense with a new quarterback in Robert Griffin III and some fresh new faces in the wide receivers room.

*       *       *

Here we go with the stupid rhetoric with regard to who the starting Cleveland quarterback will be in Philadelphia.

Stop it, Sashi Brown, with the nonsense that the competition for whom that man will be is wide open. Griffin is your quarterback. You know it. He knows it. The fans know it.

During the news conference following the final day of the draft, it was suggested by some in the media that Griffin didn’t have anything worry about competition from third-round pick Cody Kessler.

“I beg to differ with that,” Brown declared. “I think Cody is a guy I would not want to sleep on at all if I wanted to be starting quarterback of the Browns. He’s going to come in serious (and) ready to work.”

Really? You honestly believe that?

“Robert has four years of NFL experience, is tremendously athletic and serious about becoming a starting quarterback in this league. There is no reason he can’t, but this is going to be a competition.” No it’s not.

Stop it already. You have no idea what you are talking about when you talk like that. Stop trying to sell the fans on Kessler, who was one your several reaches and probably would have been on the board two rounds later.

There will be competition for the starting job only in the sense both quarterbacks will wear the same uniform in practice and on game day. You hurt your credibility when you try to foist that canard on the fans.

Who are you trying to convince? The Third? He’s too smart to fall for that. It sounds more like you’re trying to convince yourself.

*       *       *

The new denizens of the draft war room have pronounced themselves satisfied and excited with the results. That is to be expected.

But based on the overall talent level of this class, which is questionable at best, I have to seriously wonder whether the problem lies in evaluating all that talent.

When the club was thrilled to grab defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah at the top of the second round because he had a mid-first-round grade and they didn’t expect to see him there, the first seeds of draft doubt began to creep in.

And when that very bizarre fourth round unfolded, those seeds gave way to full doubt. The Browns sure do look at players in a strangely different way. But I don’t do this for a living, so what do I know?

From this standpoint, the lack of war room experience proved costly, at least in the short term. Brown & Co. were overmatched this time around. Hopefully they learned some valuable lessons.

*       *       *

The middle of the Browns’ offensive line will be different this season. Cameron Erving gets first crack at the pivot after a highly disappointing rookie season playing just about everywhere else but center and left tackle.

He won’t be handed the job. The Browns made certain of that by signing Mike Matthews of Texas A&M as a free agent. He is not your typical free agent, though. He has a terrific football pedigree and should not be discounted as just another free-agent signing.

He is the younger brother of Atlanta Falcons offensive tackle Jake Matthews and cousin of Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews III . His dad, Bruce, is in the Pro football Hall of Fame. Uncle Clay played in the NFL for 19 years, 16 with the Browns (1978-1993).

So there is some serious talent there. The question is why wasn’t he drafted? Perhaps it’s because the 295-pounder is a tick shy of 6-2 and most teams like their centers to be around 6-4. That didn’t seem to bother the Arizona Cardinals, who needed a center and picked up 6-2, 310-pound Evan Boehm in the fourth round.

But those who know Matthews, a three-year starter in college, say that while he is not impressive in his workouts, he is a different player on tape. In other words, when the games are played, he shows up. He's a gamer.

So while Brown doesn’t want you to go to sleep on his third-round choice for quarterback, it behooves you to do the same for Matthews. This is one competition that could prove very interesting.

*       *       *

It’s safe to say Ohio State had a much better weekend at the draft than the Browns. Of the 15 Buckeyes eligible to be drafted, 12 were selected, all in the first four rounds. That’s two shy of the record, set by the 2004 Buckeyes.

Only wide receiver Jalin Marshall, safety Tyvis Powell and offensive lineman Chase Farris went undrafted. Seattle signed Powell, a big safety from Bedford, as a free agent. The New York Jets signed Marshall and Detroit picked up Farris.

*       *       *
Notebook: The Browns moved down the draft so much in round one, winding up at No. 15 after starting with the second overall pick, that NFL Network host Rich Eisen, as he went to a commercial break midway through the round, said, “The Cleveland Browns are up next. We assume they are going to make a pick.” . . . The Los Angeles Rams waited until nine of their allotted 10 minutes to make the first overall pick elapsed before turning in Jared Goff’s name. Why? They knew all along Goff was their man. . . . Have to assume either Joey Bosa or Zeke Elliott was the Browns’ target in round one. San Diego and Dallas blew that up in a hurry by taking the former Buckeyes at three and four. . . . Main theme for the Browns: Going down. . . . Corey Coleman was the best player left on the Cleveland board at No. 15? Hmmmmm. . . . Adding to the ineptitude was the acquisition of Jamar Taylor from Miami in a deal in the waning moments of the draft. The highly regarded cornerback coming out of college has been a huge disappointment for the Dolphins. Sort of like Justin Gilbert with the Browns. The old change-of-scenery excuse was used. Could that mean the departure of Gilbert for the same reason? . . . Preview of next season’s draft: Can you say Deshaun Watson?

The grade is in

Something was missing for the Browns and their large global fan base during the three-day extravaganza in Chicago last weekend, a.k.a. the National Football League college draft.

The wow!! factor.

Not once during the seven-round grind, during which the Browns traversed the lottery at least five times, could a tried and true Browns fan honestly say, “Wow! What a great pick!”

Fourteen times the Browns were placed on the clock and not once did the name ultimately called register anything more than a perfunctory clap because “these guys know more about these players than we do. We’ve got to trust them.”

Only the draft-o-philes, the small number of fans who follow the draft religiously almost from the end of the previous lottery, can tell you everything you need to know about a certain player.

No, this was a Browns draft that most likely will be known more for its quantity than its quality. Drafting an average of two picks a round, they selected many players who didn’t come close to appearing on most fans’ recognition radar.

It’s not as though Sashi Brown and his crew didn’t have a chance. They certainly did, but opted to draft down twice from their original overall No. 2 slot, thus taking themselves out of the running for a crack at the short list of elite players.

They opted to initially address the wide receivers, one of the many pressing needs on the club, surprisingly taking speedy Baylor wideout Corey Coleman, rated by many analysts as the third-best at the position behind Laquon Treadwell and Josh Doctson. It foretold a draft full of surprises for Browns fans.

It more than likely was a nod to the Browns' draft board, which undoubtedly told them their No. 1 target was gone by No. 8, necessitating the second trade down. But that does not absolve them from close scrutiny in the remaining six rounds

Slotted either first or second in all but one of those rounds enabled them to take the best player off the board. They led off the second and third day of the draft and yet made some rather bizarre selections.

Second-guessing decisions made by those whose job is to make those decisions is a fun sport and always rears its homely little head in matters such as the draft. So here we go.

At the beginning of day two, the Browns were in position to take UCLA linebacker Myles Jack, a wow! factor player who would have been a top five pick until revealing  recently he might need microfracture surgery on an injured knee. Scared everybody in round one and he slipped into day two.

Word filtered out during day one that noted orthopedic surgeon James Andrews said Jack did not need that delicate surgery and was not the risk factor originally believed. So he was there to be taken the next day.

Either the Browns either didn’t buy what Dr. Andrews said or didn’t want to take the chance he might be wrong and selected defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah instead to kick off day two.

Four picks later, the Jacksonville Jaguars couldn’t get Jack’s name up quickly enough to the NFL clearing house. The Jags wind up with a sure-fire starter and the Browns wind up with a player who might be good enough to crack the starting lineup.

The way it works in the NFL is you expect players selected in rounds one and two to come in right away and win a starting job. The Browns have failed spectacularly in that department the last few years with one exception: guard Joel Bitonio.

Round three produced Carl Nassib, who could be a situational pass rusher; offensive tackle Shon Coleman, a standout in Auburn’s running game; and another surprise, quarterback Cody Kessler with Connor Cook still on the board, prompting coach Hue Jackson to caution, “You’ve got to trust me on this one.”

At the beginning of day three, the Browns had the first two selections in round four, opting for outside linebacker Joe Schobert with the first pick and trading the second to Oakland.

Linebacker definitely needed to be addressed, but the secondary, which lost both starting safeties, was a more urgent position. Strong safety Miles Killebrew, a big hitter who has linebacker size at 6-2, 215 pounds, was sitting there. Detroit took him later in the round.

Killebrew would have been a much better replacement for the departed Donte Whitner, giving the Cleveland secondary some size. Schobert has to beat out Paul Kruger, Armonty Bryant, Scott Solomon (update: the club has terminated Solomon's contract) and Barkevious Mingo to get playing time.

Other second guesses involve the other three peculiar picks in the fourth round – wide receiver Ricardo Louis, safety Derrick Kindred and tight end Seth DeValve.

Louis comes out of a run-first, run-a-lot program at Auburn, Kindred is a smaller version of Killebrew and DeValve will never be as famous as he is now as the most surprising selection of any draft in recent memory. All received extremely low grades from analysts, considerably lower than where they were taken.

Rashard Higgins, a highly productive wideout from Colorado State with much better credentials than Louis, was disregarded. Surprisingly, he was there in round five and the Browns did not make the same mistake. He will be a better pro than Louis and could see a fair amount of reps.

Where the Browns really hit it big was, ironically, their last choice. Inside linebacker Scooby Wright III will come in and play well enough to force Christian Kirksey back outside and partner with veteran newcomer Demario Davis in the middle

The most unfair grades in the sports world, those awarded immediately following any draft, are in for the Browns from around the NFL universe. They range from an A grade by the folks at Pro Football Focus to a C- from more than a few.

At the same time they drafted for the present, Brown and Co. began stockpiling choices for the future, concentrating on the early rounds. The only problem there is securing a large number of draft picks means nothing if those selecting do not apply wisdom to those selections.

If this year’s Browns draft by the Browns is any indication, there is some cause for concern for the future. In order to consider this draft a success, they need to get at least four starters and at least four other significant contributors out of it.

The Berea brass say they are pleased and excited about what went down last weekend. Of course they are. What else would you expect them to say?

It’s encouraging the wide receivers corps and pass rush have been upgraded, as well as the overall team speed. The offensive and defensive lines remain iffy, as well as the secondary.

There were some hits, most notably Corey Coleman, Ogbah, Nassib, Higgins, Wright and possibly Shon Coleman. But the misses outweigh the hits. The fourth round was a huge mess. The biggest beneficiary for those selected after round three is special teams coach Chris Tabor.

Final grade: B- (and that’s being extremely generous)

Mixed bag on third day

In the end, it’s all about perception. And it was summed up perfectly Saturday by Paul DePodesta, the Browns' chief strategy officer.

Questioned why the Browns seemed to be reaching for more than a couple of their 14 selections in the National Football League’s annual college draft that concluded Saturday, DePodesta said, “That’s just the nature of the draft. . . . Everyone does have different values on different traits.

“There were guys taken quite high that we didn’t have rated highly at all.” Maybe that explains why the team drafted several “who’s he?” players among its 14 choices – the most for the club since grabbing 15 in 1976 – in a dizzying display of maneuvering up and down the lottery.

Based on his maiden voyage through the NFL draft after spending most of his professional career in baseball, it seems as though DePodesta’s chief strategy was to rise and fall like an elevator in what can be best described as a roller coaster ride the last three days.

Of the 14 selections, only six were made where the Browns were originally slated to select as they singed the telephone lines in an effort to bolster a roster that had gaping holes.

When it was all finished, DePodesta pronounced himself satisfied with the outcome. “It wasn’t a game of accumulating draft picks, but getting players we wanted,” he said, summing up the three-day grind. “And we got just about all of them.”

Now all those players have to do is perform and live up to the brass' expectations to justify what can be best described as one of the most unusual drafts by the Browns in a long time.

The well-balanced 14-player stash includes one quarterback, four wide receivers, (it’s about time) one tight end and two (badly needed) linemen for the offense, and two linemen, a pair of linebackers and two backs for the defense.

One thing is certain: Change is on the way. The culture of this team has changed dramatically since 8 o’clock last Thursday night.

It became evident that DePodesta, coach Hue Jackson, chief scout Andrew Berry and de facto General Manager Sashi Brown went for production for the most part, seeking players who were playmakers on the collegiate level.

Players like wide receivers Corey Coleman, Jordan Payton and Rashard Higgins produced consistently during their college careers. The bonus there is Payton and Higgins, both 6-1, 200-pounders, finally give the Cleveland receiving corps some size.

It also gives Jackson a considerable amount of latitude to load up with four-and five-receiver formations if he chooses to do so. The NFL has steadily become a pass-first league, which means if he chooses do disdain his balanced-attack philosophy, he won’t be hurting for receivers.

The big question mark for the offense is whether linemen Shon Coleman and Spencer Drago (what a great football name) can make up for the loss of center Alex Mack and tackle Mitchell Schwartz. Coleman probably has a better shot than the lumbering Drago.

It generally takes at least a couple of years before offensive linemen can successfully transition to the NFL. There are exceptions, though, like Joe Thomas, Joel Bitonio, Mack and Schwartz.

Quarterback Cody Kessler, taken in round three, will work on his learning curve in his rookie season. The surprise pick will back up quarterback Robert Griffin III until The Third gets hurt, which means he probably will be tested reasonably early.

On defense, the Browns clearly improved their pass rush by drafting Emmanuel Ogbah and Carl Nassib early in back-to-back rounds. Both men come off highly  productive seasons, but are on the light side for lineman playing in a 3-4 front.

It will be interesting to see if the Browns try to beef them up to the 300-pound neighborhood as they now will face more sophisticated offenses that feature, in many cases, much bigger opponents. It's also possible they might be used as hybrid outside linebackers/defensive ends who can play upright or with a hand on the ground.

While the Browns made some wise decisions, they balanced that out with a few that can be best described as strange, most notably Seth DeValve, whose name and football exploits fall into the “what!!, who is this guy?” category.

When Brown & Co. made the Princeton tight end the team’s last of four fourth-round selections with one of their compensatory picks, it raised eyebrows around most of the pro football media universe.

Hardly anyone, it seemed, knew who this guy was. Surely, that had to be a typo on the television screen. Then again, perhaps it was a Harvard nod to a fellow Ivy League school. Still, nobody had a clue when DeValve’s name appeared on TV. It looked like a made-up name and was clearly a head scratcher.

The pro football folks at RotoWorld, after summarizing DeValve’s statistical career at Princeton, wrote: We’ve gotta be honest: We’d never heard of DeValve before the draft and looked up all this on the fly.”

His name did not appear on most draft analysts’ lists, but the Browns sure knew about him and thought enough of him to make him the 138^th overall pick. Maybe it was his chiseled 6-3, 245-pound frame and impressive private workout that resulted in the pick. He ran a 4.68 40 and had 23 reps in the bench press.

It certainly wasn’t DeValve’s college stats that impressed the Browns. In five injury-filled years, he played in 36 games, catching 112 passes for 1,325 yards and only seven touchdowns. He is a classic diamond in extremely high rough. 

The first three Cleveland picks in the fourth round were just as puzzling, making that round as close to a disaster as you can get. This is where teams begin to find the hidden gems, the players who, for some reason, fall.

Players like wide receiver Ricardo Louis, outside linebacker Joe Schobert and free safety Derrick Kindred. Louis had mediocre numbers at Auburn mainly because the Tigers ran the ball two-thirds of the time. Schobert forced four fumbles last season and had 9½ sacks, but was given a fifth-round grade by most analysts.

Kindred is a banger, but a free safety should be more of a ball hawk and he has problems in that area. He’ll probably wind up on special teams.

Trey Caldwell, a smallish cornerback from Louisiana-Monroe, was taken with the fourth selection in a four-pick fifth round. He is more of an athlete than football player and probably will wind up on special teams with Kindred and a few of the aforementioned not yet ready to play on a steady basis in the NFL.

But pick No. 14 late in the final round is ready. He is a gem. An out-and-out steal. He is not fast. He is not quick. He is just a football player. He makes plays. His greatest asset is his instinct and football intellect. There is a place for him on this football team, perhaps as a starter.

I saw Scooby Wright play many times for the University of Arizona. I don’t know how he does it, but he seems to be around the ball a lot and it’s not by accident. In his sophomore season in 2014 at Arizona, he recorded 164 tackles (100 solo) in 14 games, 31 for loss. He has a feel for the game you can’t teach.

The 6-0, 240-pound Wright (real name Philip) was off to a good start again last season when he suffered broken foot and torn knee meniscus in game three, racking up 23 tackles along the way, and was done for the year.

The new regime’s initial draft had some solid hits and several misses. But at least it made up for the previous regime’s frustrating inattention to the wide receiver position. We’ll sum it all up Sunday along with the final grade.

Quarterback surprise

He was sitting there waiting to be selected when the Browns were called on the clock for the 93^rd pick in the National Football League’s college draft Friday night.

They had already drafted wide receiver Corey Coleman in the opening round Thursday night, defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah in round two and defensive end Carl Nassib offensive tackle Shon Coleman in round three.

All the speculation leading up to the lottery centered on the Browns drafting a quarterback. After passing on the opportunity to grab one with the second overall pick, it was only a matter of time before they leaped.

And so they did, but the name uttered was not Connor Cook, the local kid many pundits believed was a natural fit for his hometown team. The kid from Hinckley was sitting there just waiting to be taken.

Only one problem. The Browns did not love him nearly enough to spend a selection on him. They liked Southern California’s Cody Kessler a whole lot better and proved it by taking him with a pick gained in a trade with Carolina.

Coach Hue Jackson, who knows something about quarterbacks, practically gushed about Kessler following the extremely surprising selection. “You have to trust me on this one,” he assured the Cleveland media.

“He’s everything you look for in a quarterback. We’re bringing him for a reason. He has the characteristics we’re looking for. Let’s give him an opportunity to compete.”

The hallmark for Kessler – small for an NFL quarterback at 6-1, 220 pounds, but he has huge hands (nearly 11 inches) – is his stunning throwing accuracy. He completed 67.5% of his passes in three seasons, throwing for 88 touchdowns and only 19 interceptions.

Jackson cited Kessler’s “pinpoint accuracy. He can throw the ball straight to the guy he’s throwing to. If you can’t, you can’t play in the NFL.” The Browns have given him the opportunity to prove it.

Where Kessler fails to wow scouts is his lack of arm strength. He is more of a short- to medium-range passer (kind of like ex-Browns great Brian Sipe), whereas the 6-4, 220-pound Cook, on the other hand, can stretch the field.

Cook and Kessler operated out of a pro-style offense in college, but it was the latter who caught the eye of the most important man in the Cleveland war room when selection No. 93 was placed on the clock.

The fact Cook is still on the board is puzzling with Saturday’s four-round conclusion to the draft up next. After all, he was 34-5 as a starter at Michigan State. However, his 57.5% accuracy and 71-22 touchdowns/interceptions ratio most likely were warning signs.

As for the rest of day two, the Browns made a pair of moves to help shore up one of the club’s biggest weaknesses – the pass rush – by taking Ogbah and Nassib, a pair of pass-rushing ends who got up close and very personal with opposing quarterbacks last season, and Shon Coleman to help shore up the offensive line.

Ogbah is listed at 6-4, 275 pounds and Nassib at 6-7, 277 pounds, kind of light for a defensive end in a 3-4 front. It wouldn’t surprise if defensive coordinator Ray Horton utilizes both young men in a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker role in certain formations.

Ogbah, grabbed with the first pick of the second round, is more of a run stopper than pass rusher, but he did have 17½ tackles for loss last season at Oklahoma State and figures to see lots of playing time.

Nassib, one of the nice draft stories, is more of a project and might be used strictly as a situational pass rusher. He went from walk-on to special teams ace (for two seasons) to the nation’s sack leader with 15½ as a senior with Penn State last season.

He is a classic overachiever who might be the one player in this class who outperforms his draft slot. All he needs to do is prove to those who believe he’s a one-year wonder that he’s much more.

Shon Coleman arrives with the opportunity to slip into the right tackle slot along the offensive line that became vacant when Mitchell Schwartz opted to sign with the Kansas City Chiefs. He played a lot at both tackles for Auburn.

Unless the Browns deal veteran left tackle Joe Thomas, the right side is where the versatile Coleman will begin. But if the Browns do Thomas a favor and ship him to a team good enough to compete for a championship, Coleman will feel just as comfortable at left tackle.

He’ll also bring a few smarts to whatever position he lands at, having secured his master’s degree in Adult Education last year.

Entering Saturday’s final four rounds, the Browns have yet to address roster holes at both safeties, cornerback, inside linebacker, at least one more offensive lineman and wide receiver, not to mention depth at several other positions.

There is still a lot of work to be done to fill in the many gaps that exist and they’ll have plenty of opportunity to mine for talent right off the bat with the first two picks of the fourth round.

They have seven total selections in rounds four and five, will be a spectator in the sixth round unless they trade into it and their final pick is at the top of round seven. 

This is the part of the draft territory that separates the men from the boys, the pros from the amateurs. This is where those little nuggets turn into bright, shining stars with intelligent selecting, where the underdog lies in wait for the opportunity to prove to the pro football world they are better than where they are drafted.

It is a place the Browns haven’t profited from for a long, long time. The new regime has a shot to change that and finally give fans the team for which they have longed for way too long.

What was that?

Not sure exactly what the Browns wanted to accomplish as the opening round of the National Football League’s college draft unfolded Thursday night, but it sure went over the heads of a large majority of their fans.

One thing is certain, based solely on the puzzling passive manner the club’s new top brass displayed throughout the long, boring, sleep-inducing evening: Nobody in Berea knows what the hell they are doing.

There seems to be no direction as the front office continued to trade down and compile future draft picks while doing very little to improve the team.

The Browns several days ago owned the second overall pick and traded that to Philadelphia in exchange for the eighth pick and several future picks. Then when the eighth selection arrived, they punted again, allowing the Tennessee Titans to move up from No. 15 for more future draft picks.

It was almost as though they did not want to draft at all Thursday. But a bright future sure loomed as the stockpiling of future choices kicked into second gear.

And when the Browns finally decided to end the suspense and actually made a selection at No. 15, one could understand why the reticence. They probably couldn’t find a trade partner. So with all the holes on both sides of the ball, they proceeded to choose a player at a position that ranked lower in importance than most others.

By passing at No. 8, they declined to improve the offensive line, defensive line and secondary in favor of a wide receiver. Yes, there are two more days, six more rounds and 12 more picks, but a wide receiver with the first pick?

Not just any wide receiver, but a smallish one in 5-11, 185-pound Corey Coleman of Baylor. Hard to believe he was the best player on the Cleveland board when the Browns were placed on the clock

If so, that’s an indictment on the club’s player evaluation talents. Wide receiver is not one of the strongest positions in this deep draft. To wit: Coleman was the first receiver off the board.

It’s bad enough that a wide receiver received a higher priority by the Browns than other more pressing areas. And a couple of 6-2, 200-pound wideouts – Laquon Treadwell and Josh Doctson – were available. What is it about short wide receivers that is so appealing to the Browns?

Top dog Sashi Brown said a couple of days before the draft that the Browns were locked in on one player. As it turned out, he and his lieutenants basically traded themselves right out of one of the top prospects by dropping down to No. 8.

When San Diego at No. 3 surprised by taking Ohio State’s Joey Bosa and Dallas followed by choosing fellow Buckeye Ezekiel Elliott, the rhythm of the top 10 picks was altered enough that by the time the Browns were up, their man was gone. Thus the tradedown.

Why the panic? With only seven players off the board, there certainly were impact-type players available. The Titans must have thought so when they selected Michigan State offensive tackle Jack Conklin with the pick they got from Cleveland. He would have been a perfect plug-in for the departed Mitchell Schwartz at right tackle.

Retooling an offensive line that lost 40% of its starters in free agency has to be rated higher in importance than improving the wide receivers corps. Forget the third-rounder they picked up this year and the second-rounder they’ll get next year from Tennessee.

So let’s recap here. The Titans traded the No. 1 overall pick to Los Angeles and moved to No. 15, the Browns swapped the second overall selection to Philadelphia and moved to No. 8, then turned around and shipped the eighth pick to Tennessee and moved back to No. 15.

In trading down twice, contend the more optimistic, sycophantic fans looking for anything to cling to, the Browns gained an extra three picks this year and three more next year with a pair of tradedowns just so they could take that little wide receiver.

It sure looks as though the new front office busted out the stupid pills in the opening round.

Maybe it was Coleman’s production the last two seasons at Baylor that influenced the pick. He caught 138 passes for 2,482 yards and 31 touchdowns the last two seasons, including 74-1,363-20 last season.

The biggest knocks against the Biletnikoff Award winner were his below-average route running – apparently they run simple routes in the high-powered Baylor offense – and his predilection of allowing the ball to get into his chest.

The speedy Coleman also runs most of his routes outside the numbers, rarely showing up in the middle of the field. He most likely will take over as the club’s field-stretching threat replacing Travis Benjamin.

Speed, according to Brown, was an important factor in the selection of Coleman, who compares his style to Steve Smith of Baltimore and Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown. “We wanted to add speeed to our offense to make sure people respect our passing game,” he said.

It looks as though Brown is more a skill player advovcate rather than concentrating on trench warfare, where most games are won and lost. He still has the next two days and six rounds to correct that problem.

So now it’s on to day two and the Browns have the first pick of the two-round session. Speculation runs rampant they will dip into the quarterback ranks with that choice with Connor Cook of Walsh Jesuit High School and Michigan State the likely selection.

Then again, Brown might trade down again. 

Joey, Joey, Joey

Imagine my surprise while watching Mike Mayock’s first and only mock draft the other night on NFL Network, especially when he arrived at pick No. 8.

Now I have the greatest respect for Mayock, whose evaluations of players are usually as close to dead-on as one can get.

So when he got to the Browns’ selection in the opening round of Thursday’s National Football League college draft and made his selection, it made me sit bolt upright and declare, “No way.”

He intoned a name I believed would never fall to Cleveland’s slot because I thought for certain he would have been taken much sooner. As high, in fact, as No. 4, where Dallas resides.

But Mayock gave the Cowboys Ohio State running back Zeke Elliott, who would have been a solid fit for Cleveland. He predicted the Jacksonville Jaguars would follow and take defensive back Jalen Ramsey, maybe the best athlete in the 2016 class.

Then he hurled a curveball at No. 6, suggesting the Baltimore Ravens, who could use a pass rusher, would trade down nine slots with the Tennessee Titans, who would then grab Laremy Tunsil, the best offensive lineman on the board.

At No. 7, he awarded defensive lineman DeForest Buckner to San Francisco. And that’s when I realized the young man I wanted the Browns to draft at No. 2, when they owned that slot before the big trade with Philadelphia, was still on the board.

While most everyone back then all but gave the Browns either Jared Goff or Carson Wentz to solve their long-standing quarterback problem, I was a lone voice in the wilderness urging Sashi Brown & Co. to seriously consider the name Mayock uttered at No. 8.

Yep, he gave the Browns Ohio State defensive lineman Joey Bosa. From Mayock’s lips to the NFL draft gods.

“Bosa will be an immediate impact player,” he wrote on nfl.com. “The Browns would be ecstatic to get Bosa, who many think is the most impactful defensive end in this draft.” If there is anything the Browns desperately need on defense, it’s impact.

Now selecting Bosa for the Browns might be wishful thinking on Mayock’s part. After all, he had to engineer a Baltimore-Tennessee trade to maneuver the Buckeye into position so the Browns could select him.

But this is mock fantasy we’re dealing with, not stark reality. Unfortunately, most draft experts do not grade out well when it comes to mocks, although it sure is fun leading up to the lottery. That, of course, is because they can’t crawl into the heads of the 32 men making command decisions.

And that is why mocks such as Mayock’s allows one to dream of scenarios that ultimately fail to materialize because, well, it’s unrealistic. Outside of the top two picks this year when Goff and Wentz are certain to be selected, it will be a crapshoot.

But for a little while, thanks to Mayock, it was great picturing Bosa wearing No. 97 in the Seal Brown and Orange.

Unless . . . 

Berea brimming with confidence

When Sashi Brown and the Browns’ top brass in Berea enter the war room for the first round of the annual National Football League college draft sometime Thursday, they will do so with extreme confidence.

Even though it will be the first time for a majority of the residents of that room, self-assurance abounds.

“We’re set, locked in, know who we’ll be taking,” Brown declared on Cleveland radio Tuesday. “And if that player is not there, or if we get another offer that just blows our socks off, we’ll know how to react to that.”

His aim is to “stay calm and keep an open mind and then make great decisions. Go into the draft knowing the players you want, have conviction and don’t worry about what might have been. Just make the best possible decisions for yourself. Be prepared for every type of scenario that might come up.”

At the same time, observers around professional football will watch with keen interest to see if the Browns, after way too many years of draft frustration and ineptitude, finally conduct a draft that makes sense.

“We know eyes are on us,” Brown said. “This is an important draft for us. . . . But we’re confident we won’t repeat some of our errors of the past. I think the key for us now is trusting our information and making sound decisions.”

Sort of sounds like what decision makers of the past said prior to the draft. You remember their names: Dwight Clark, Butch Davis, Phil Savage, George Kokinis, Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert Jr., Ray Farmer and Mike Lombardi.

They are the brainiacs who have helped the Browns take up semi-permanent residence in the AFC North basement. The only things that change are the names and faces. The sadly awful results represent the only consistency in this organization since 1999.

In his latest MMQB offering, Peter King of Sports Illustrated sharply noted the Browns’ recent abysmal drafting failures after praising the most recent deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.

“So Cleveland did very well in this deal acquiring a first-, third- and fourth-round picks this year, a first-round pick in 2017 and a second-round pick in 2018 for moving down six spots in the first round . . . But the Browns have made four trades involving first-round picks in the past five years and every one has been an abject failure. The deals netted Cleveland Phil Taylor, Brandon Weeden, Owen Marecic, Greg Little, Trent Richardson, Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel – and the only player left . . . is a cornerback whose days are numbered there, the terminally disappointing Gilbert. That is an amazing run of ineptitude.”

Kind of puts things in perspective.

Until he actually sits in the driver’s seat and experiences the rhythm of the draft, Brown has no clue as to what is going to happen, his confidence notwithstanding. The unpredictable nature of the lottery is such that decisions sometimes must be made not only on the fly, but with precious little time to make them.

Unless Brown and his minions are so totally and incredibly prepared that they have alternative plans B through F every time they are placed on the clock in the three-day extravaganza, there will be a lot of scrambling, especially if the team directly in front of them grabs a player they want.

Decision time goes quickly. In the opening round, teams are given 10 minutes to make their choice. That shrinks to seven minutes in round two and five minutes the rest of the way.

It is entirely possible the Cleveland war room crew has conducted numerous dress rehearsals along the way, injecting every inevitability into a variety of scenarios in order to avoid making silly mistakes because time ran out.

The pressure is clearly on Brown & Co. to show the rest of the pro football world that not only have the names and faces changed in Cleveland, the times have changed, too, as analytics take center stage.

What have they got to lose? Considering what preceded them, absolutely nothing. They certainly can’t be any worse than their predecessors. Or can they?

Catching up with the Browns

Give the 2016 bad-timing award to your (sometimes humble) blogger. No sooner does he leave for a few days to attend to family matters than the Browns engineer a massive college draft-related trade with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The reverberations involved in that deal, announced the very same day I left, are still fresh in my mind, though. So consider this effort a rather sizable catching up featuring opinions that have not changed since last Wednesday.

First of all, the deal was not shocking, considering all the rhetoric that had been thrown around prior to the announcement. The surprising aspect would have been no deal at all.

So why did the Browns give up the opportunity to draft who many believed would be their dream franchise quarterback? The answer, although not proffered by the club, was they didn’t think highly enough of Jared Goff or Carson Wentz to draft them with the second overall selection.

Someone in the hierarchy wisely – and finally – believed someone who can come in and make an immediate difference would better serve the club’s roster. It is a roster seriously bereft of quality talent and depth.

Culling extra draft picks in the blockbuster deal with the Eagles, in addition to moving down only six slots in the first round, enables Sashi Brown, Andrew Berry & Co. to plug many holes, especially on defense.

Eschewing Goff and Wentz sends a direct and powerful signal to Robert Griffin III that he is the man at quarterback and needn’t look over his shoulder. Browns coach Hue Jackson is placing his confidence – misguided in the eyes of more than a few – in his new quarterback.

Brown is foolishly on record as proclaiming that Griffin “is not the starting quarterback.” That’s nothing more than nonsensical rhetoric that practically no one takes seriously. Unless he is injured, The Third is your starting quarterback. Period.

The Browns own 12 selections in the upcoming lottery, including seven in the first four rounds. Barring any further deals, they will be on the clock six times in the first 100 picks in a draft considered by many to be unusually deep in talent.

The Browns are clearly in a build-from-the-foundation-up mode, Jackson’s protestations notwithstanding, and need to stockpile these picks. To trade down again, as has been rumored, prior to the beginning of the National Football League’s big weekend bonanza starting Thursday, would be piling on.

If it’s their intent to lead the NFL in draft picks, then sure, why not deal some more? Trade your little hearts out. Yes, the Browns need more than a handful of picks. But to continually trade down means they are opting for lesser talent along the way. And that makes no sense.

Sitting at No 8 in the opening round right now presents the Cleveland brass with the opportunity to grab a difference maker. The consensus top 10 players lean more toward the defense, but there is one offensive threat lurking who could make a huge difference.

The hallmark of a Hue Jackson offense is balance. No one aspect of his offense dictates the other. In his offense, the pass does not set up the run, nor does the run set up the pass.

In order to attain that balance with the Browns, it wouldn’t surprise if Jackson lobbies hard for the Browns to take Ezekiel Elliott, assuming the bruising Ohio State running back is still sitting there at eight.

The Browns need a running back who can gain more than three yards a pop, catch the football and block like an offensive lineman. Elliott more than fills all the requirements Jackson looks for in a running back. Just give him uniform number 15 and be done with it.

A strong runner like Elliott, paired with the exciting Duke Johnson Jr., would certainly take a significant amount of pressure off The Third as he attempts his comeback.

If Elliott is not there at No 8 – the Baltimore Ravens drafting at No. 6 could use a running back – that means someone impactful on defense will slip to the Browns. And don’t even think Joey Bosa. Elliott’s college teammate will be gone before No. 8.

It could be defensive back Jalen Ramsey, who would be a perfect fit at one of the safety slots; outside linebacker Myles Jack, coming off knee surgery; or lineman DeForest Buckner, who could team with Danny Shelton in an effort to finally stop the run.

But if Elliott is there and they take him, the Browns then could further improve their offensive package by opting for a tackle with their next pick at the top of the second round.

There are several good ones available who can immediately replace the departed Mitchell Schwartz. Someone like Michigan State’s Jack Conklin comes immediately to mind. It would help reinforce an offensive line that lost 40% of its starters to free agency.

Accomplishing that, however, might require trading back into the first round, which might be anathema to the current front office.

Bottom line: A dozen selections is a nice haul. But quantity does not necessarily translate into quality. You can give the Browns 20 draft picks and they would mean nothing if the wisdom behind those picks did not justify confidence in those making the selections.

Keep reminding yourself that no one who will occupy the war room in Berea this coming weekend has any practical experience when it comes to selecting players. They are relative neophytes with regard to making command decisions on player personnel.

Brown is not a football man. Paul DePodesta is not a football man. Berry is a football man, but he has been on the outer fringes of the college draft. And Jackson is much more a coach than he is a talent evaluator.

That is who will be making the decisions, with help from the scouting staff, for the Browns. This is not one of those “I have faith in (fill in the blank)” moments usually reserved for those who bring experience to the drafting table.

No. This one will be quite different in oh so many ways. The entire NFL world will be watching for certain as analytics (per DePodesta) drive whatever takes place this weekend.

What in the world will they do?

The possibilities on what the Browns will do deliciously abound as we head down the homestretch toward the National Football League’s annual college draft.

And since the Los Angeles Rams have sort of removed the mystery of whom they are going to take with the first overall selection a week from Thursday night without actually revealing it, the spotlight falls squarely on the Browns.

What in the world are they going to do with the second overall pick? Keep it and take the quarterback the Rams pass on?

Shock everyone and grab one of the four outstanding defensive players available, then take one of the quarterback leftovers with the first choice at the top of the second round?

Stun even more fans and experts by taking Ohio State running back Zeke Elliott, heretofore believed to be chosen several picks later? (The Browns sure could use a strong runner.)

Trade down and stockpile even more picks than the 10 they now own as the new regime launches the franchise’s latest effort to climb out of the NFL dunghill?

The possibilities do, indeed, abound deliciously.

It wouldn’t surprise that daily arguments regarding the direction of the club erupt with the tried-and-true football people on one side and the analytical wonks on the other.

For all we know, there very well might be two factions pulling in opposite directions, which often produces poor results. Then again, there is nothing wrong with dialogue as long as it remains healthy

But an uncertainty of trust definitely hangs over those who will be in charge inside the Cleveland war room. The lack of experience is, at best, troubling.

Top boss Sashi Brown has never conducted a draft. He has been an ancillary part in the past as the chief contract negotiator. He’ll make the final calls. Yikes!

Paul DePodesta, a career baseball man, is dipping his hands into NFL draft waters for the first time. Unless he is an unusually quick learner to the whys and wherefores of the NFL, he can be considered nothing more than a neophyte at this stage. A reserved yikes!

After the draft weekend ends, we should have a better understanding what the club’s chief strategy officer really does, what the new title actually means and how it impacts the roster.

New head coach Hue Jackson, although not in charge, is expected to have a large say-so in the proceedings, but he, too, is as close to a being a first-timer in that room as just about everyone else. Too offensive minded. More balance needed there.

Owner Jimmy Haslam, the veteran in the room, hopefully will be nothing more than a spectator what with his previous dalliances in the lottery. Enough said.

Andrew Berry, the club’s new vice president of player personnel, is expected to have a loud and influential voice in the room. But this is his first appearance in that capacity as he joins fellow Harvard alums Brown and DePodesta.

If nothing else, this Crimson troika will emerge a week from Saturday evening with a much greater understanding on how the wheels turn in the NFL. The knowledge they glean will be valuable down the line.

What we won’t know for at least a couple of years is how much of an impact their efforts this year will have on the roster and its subsequent performance.