In his annual report chronicling the viewpoints of several unnamed NFL executives and their unfiltered thoughts on the 32 draft classes across the league, Mike Sando of The Athletic dredged up some guarded optimism about the Browns.
Sando’s anonymous executives praised certain aspects of rookie GM Andrew Berry’s performance, but also offered up some skepticism as well.
Most of the critique is directed at top pick Jedrick Wills. And based on the fan reaction to the Alabama right tackle taken at No. 10 overall, it might be a fair critique.
“How will his transition be going from the right side to the left?” an evaluator said. “I feel expectations for him are too high coming in, especially when you consider the last time Cleveland took a tackle this high, it was Joe Thomas.”
The tone changes regarding second-round pick, LSU safety Grant Delpit. His underwhelming 2019 season caused Delpit to fall from being a preseason top-10 projection. His personal loss was viewed as Cleveland’s gain.
“If you would have told me last fall that Delpit would be the third safety taken, I never would have believed it,” an evaluator said. “A lot of scouts had him as the top safety going into the season. He fought some injuries and that is part of why he had a down year.”
Another source told Sando that Berry deserved praise for acquiring a third-round pick next year from the Saints in a draft-day trade, noting,”the fact they wound up with a third-round pick next year was great. The guys they ended up picking I thought were good too.”
Unnamed sources are always to be taken with a proper grain of salt, but it’s still a good look at what the league at large thinks of the Browns.