And The Cleveland Browns 1st Round Pick Is........

Over a month ago most draftniks predicted that the Browns would end up taking CB Joe Haden with their first round pick. As we got closer to the draft that changed, especially after the team made a trade with Philadelphia for Sheldon Brown. Despite their best hopes S Eric Berry did not drop to the Browns and was instead taken by Kansas City with pick # 5. Speculation was rampant that the Browns would take either S Earl Thomas, RB CJ Spiller or QB Jimmy Clausen (a horrible prediction in my opinion) but when the time came however, the Browns did the unexpected and selected the guy that most “experts” originally said that they would, Joe Haden. For me it isn’t very hard to understand this move. For one thing, Sheldon Brown might be moved to safety. If they choose to keep him at CB then the Browns have made a weak position into a very strong one. Most likely Brown will be a starter with Eric Wright and Haden will be the nickel back for them and that makes CB an extremely solid position.

Of course there were some surprises as is usual with any NFL draft. The Raiders (is it just me or does it always seem that they do something odd?) selected LB Rolando McClain at # 8. The Bills took RB CJ Spiller next even though they have a bad offensive line, lots of RBs and there were numerous linemen that they could have picked. At # 10 the Jaguars shocked everyone by taking DT Tyson Alualu extremely higher than is pre-draft grade supported. One of the biggest surprises however was made later in the round by the Broncos. They traded down twice and then back up to select QB Tim Tebow even though they traded for QB Brady Quinn (from my very own Browns team) in the off season and have Kyle Orton as the returning started. Most draft gurus feel that Tebow hasn't developed the QB skills needed for the NFL and didn’t warrant a first round pick.

When it comes down to it though it doesn’t matter what any of us think about which team selected which player. These teams make their selections and move on from there. Tonight the 2nd and 3rd rounds will be held and on Saturday rounds 4-7 will finish out the draft. After that the free agent frenzy for undrafted players will begin so it’s hard to say what the team rosters will look like come training camp. All I can do is hope that the Browns will have improved their talent level and that it will show up on the field.

Some players I think that may interest the Browns in the 2nd round are safeties Taylor Mays, Nate Allen and Chad Jones as well as QB Colt Mccoy and a slew of WRs (too many to name them all). Stay tuned for more…………………..