Browns fans know all too well what happens when the team makes a poor choice in the first round of a draft. Missing on a top-10 overall pick is a major setback, depriving the team of an infusion of desperately-needed impact talent.
New Browns GM Andrew Berry cannot afford to miss with his first pick as the man in charge. This current Browns team is built to compete for the postseason right away. Avoiding a mistake is just as important as getting the right player.
Here are four players Berry and the Browns need to avoid in the first round, be it at No. 10 or in any trade back from that slot.
CeeDee Lamb, WR, Oklahoma
Lamb is expected to be one of the first two wideouts to come off the board, and the Browns pick is in the range where that starts to happen in most mock drafts. He’s a very gifted playmaker, great on contested catches and an exceptional threat after the catch.
But the Browns already have a better, more experienced player just like Lamb on the roster in Odell Beckham Jr. Cleveland does need to address the paucity of depth at WR sometime in the draft, but using the first-round pick on a redundant player to Beckham doesn’t make sense from a fit or value standpoint.