Like the Browns’ future, Myles Garrett is in good shape.
Before the 2017 NFL Draft, Bill Barnwell wrote about the incredible amount of draft value accumulated by the Browns. At the time, Cleveland’s 2017 draft picks equaled 96.7 points of draft value, but because of some trades – particularly involving Houston’s trade up for QB DeShaun Watson (which hurt the Browns 2017 Draft but added a 2018 1st round pick), along with a pair of trade-ups by the Browns that cost the team some value – Cleveland wound up using 86.9 points of draft value. That was still, by a good measure, the largest amount of draft value for any team in 2017.
In the last 20 years, only two teams had even 85 points of draft value — the expansion Texans (85.2 points) and 2008 Chiefs (86.6 points). As a result, the 2017 Browns had more draft value than any team since the 1993 Patriots (88.4 points)! Meanwhile, the current iteration of the Patriots had very, very little draft value: New England started behind the 8-ball with the last pick in each round, and things only got worse after trading a 1st round pick for Brandin Cooks, a 2nd round pick for Kony Ealy, and a 4th round pick for Dwayne Allen and a 6th rounder. That’s the lowest in the last five years, topping the 2014 Colts (17.3 points of value), and the fewest since the 2012 Raiders, who had just 14.9 points.
| Rk | Team | Picks | Draft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CLE | 10 | 86.9 |
| 2 | NOR | 7 | 63.5 |
| 3 | SFO | 10 | 63.5 |
| 4 | TEN | 9 | 56 |
| 5 | CIN | 11 | 55 |
| 6 | JAX | 7 | 53.3 |
| 7 | CHI | 5 | 52.2 |
| 8 | NYJ | 9 | 51.6 |
| 9 | CAR | 7 | 51.2 |
| 10 | LAC | 7 | 49.5 |
| 11 | SEA | 11 | 48.7 |
| 12 | BAL | 7 | 48.7 |
| 13 | IND | 8 | 48.2 |
| 14 | WAS | 10 | 45.4 |
| 15 | PHI | 8 | 45.2 |
| 16 | ARI | 7 | 44.5 |
| 17 | DEN | 8 | 42.3 |
| 18 | HOU | 7 | 42.2 |
| 19 | DET | 9 | 40.9 |
| 20 | KAN | 6 | 39.6 |
| 21 | TAM | 6 | 39.1 |
| 22 | BUF | 6 | 38.5 |
| 23 | GNB | 10 | 38.3 |
| 24 | PIT | 8 | 37.6 |
| 25 | NYG | 6 | 35.9 |
| 26 | OAK | 9 | 35.4 |
| 27 | MIA | 7 | 34.4 |
| 28 | LAR | 8 | 34.1 |
| 29 | DAL | 9 | 32.8 |
| 30 | MIN | 11 | 32.1 |
| 31 | ATL | 6 | 31.1 |
| 32 | NWE | 4 | 16.9 |
Cleveland had the most draft value (75.3 points) last year and the most in 2015 (68.4); the Browns ranked 3rd in 2014 Draft Value (65.3) behind the Texans and Rams. The 2014 Draft was a disaster early — Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel were the team’s first two picks, and neither made it to 10 starts of 25 games with the team — although G Joel Bitonio and LB Christian Kirksey have been good picks. The early returns on the 2015 Draft aren’t great, either: first round picks NT Danny Shelton struggled as a rookie but was better last year, while OL Cameron Erving has been a disaster.
But the Browns new regime (led by Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta) took over in 2016, so it’s not fair to lump the ’14 and ’15 drafts in with the more recent classes. Ultimately, it is the success of guys like Corey Coleman, Emmanuel Ogbah, Carl Nassib, and Cody Kessler from the 2016 Draft and Myles Garrett, Jabrill Peppers, David Njoku, and DeShone Kizer from this year’s draft, that will ultimately determine the success of this new regime. And after years of accumulating draft value, at some point these players have to hit, right?
And let’s not forget that in the 2018 NFL Draft, Cleveland already owns Houston’s 1st round pick, Houston’s and Philadelphia’s 2nd round picks, Carolina’s 4th round pick, and Pittsburgh’s 6th round pick, while retaining all of the Browns original selections. If the Browns aren’t good by 2019, and very good by 2020, a lot of things must have gone very, very wrong for Cleveland.