Pass the No-Doz please

Now wasn’t that fun, Browns fans?

After a three-hour and 41-minute exercise in futility, also known as the first round of the National Football League college draft Thursday night in Nashville, the Browns emerged the same way they entered: twiddling their thumbs.

Surrendering their original first-round pick to the New York in order to lure Odell Beckham away from the New York Giants pretty much rendered the club’s front office silent throughout the evening.

The snoozefest had to upset at least a small portion of Browns Nation hopeful General Manager John Dorsey would somehow, some way trade back into the opening round.

Six deals were struck (all but one in the second half of the round) and yet Trader John either didn’t like what was left on the board or was not persuasive enough to pull something off.

Defense was the biggest winner of the evening, 18 players selected on that side of the ball with the defensive line accounting for 12 of those selections, one of the key areas Dorsey had targeted.

The secondary, another Dorsey target, produced only three selections. Which means there will be a wealth of talent from which to choose when the draft resumes Friday evening with rounds two and three.

Unless he decides to reevaluate what’s left and believes it would be worth trading up from pick 49 (the 17^th of the second round), he’ll probably stay put and take the best defensive player on the board regardless of specific position.  

Talents like cornerbacks Bryon Murphy, Greedy Williams, Justin Layne and Amani Oruwariye and safeties Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Nasir Adderley, Deionte Thompson, Taylor Rapp and Juan Thornhill are still there. At least one or two will be there at 49.

A few good offensive linemen are still available (Dalton Risner, Greg Little, Cody Ford and Bobby Evans) if Dorsey chooses to stockpile an area that might require lots of help as early as next season.

The draft started out unpredictably with several surprising selections early on, the Oakland Raiders grabbing defensive end Clelin Ferrell with the fourth pick and the New York Giants taking quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth ahead of Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, who went to Washington at 15.

As the draft tumbled past the midway point, Browns fans held their breath for Mississippi State defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. The Dorsey favorite (at least that’s what he said) dropped to 19 before the Tennessee Titans ended that little dream.

All in all, it turned out to be nothing more than a No-Doz sort of evening for fans of this team, not at all used to ending it with what amounted to nothing more than a fruitless and frankly boring chunk of time they can never get back.

If there is any good news to celebrate, at least Dorsey didn’t spoil next year’s first round by including that selection in a deal Thursday night. That’s one good reason to look forward to the opening round in only 365 more days.