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April 23, 2018WFNY NFL Top 35 Mock Draft: Kyle Kelly Edition
April 23, 2018Happy Monday, and welcome to draft week. I have been waiting to write that line for some time here, and it is finally getting close. Even last week the idea of the draft felt so far away as the social media platforms became a new level of unbearable and work conversations continued to consist of ways the Browns will mess this up. I’m not one to avoid the idea of any Browns draft going awry, but this is not the off-season to come at me with that negative approach. I feel safe in saying that this is the single most important draft in Browns history.
For this first time in years, I feel a sliver of hope here – an Andy Dufresne level of hope. The roster is currently littered with a handful of promising young prospects at positions of importance, and the Browns did relatively well in free agency, bringing in an influx of veteran talent to complement the roster. Dorsey did a nice job of keeping his incoming contracts to a tight time frame in terms of guaranteed money, and in turn, kept the future flexible.
But that brings us to the draft at hand. The draft I still believe to be the single most important in franchise history. The Browns are coming into this week at a franchise crossroads. The once bulletproof support from the fanbase, just happy to be back post-1999, is waning. Attendance is steadfastly dropping as the Browns have been 25th and 24th in consecutive years as the franchise has won just a single game in that time frame. They have seen the experienced names the likes of Phil Savage, Joe Banner, Tom Heckert, Mike Lombardi, Eric Mangini, Mike Holmgren, and Romeo Crennel come and go. They have seen fresh faces like Mike Pettine, Ray Farmer, George Kokonis, and Sashi Brown come and go all the same. We don’t know the answer to this riddle of a franchise, but the faith now lies in John Dorsey and the pressure couldn’t be higher. Many fans have walked away from the franchise, having dealt with nearly twenty years of the same ineptitude.
The last two years have included a roster tear down of extreme levels, and in doing so it always pointed to the draft asset collection in aiming toward year three turnaround. The Browns didn’t win games, but they did spend two years trading back and collecting picks that they hoped would, in the near future, mean a draft full of riches. Along with the draft asset collection came a cap situation tear down that let the franchise attack the pool of free agents in an effort to mix quality veterans with promising young players. When you mix the last two years of historically poor football on top of the decade-plus worth of failure before it, you have a fan base growing extremely impatient. I’m not here to make threats but if this front office can’t bring a true, sustainable winner to Cleveland, it will be a catastrophic disappointment.
The Browns have had multiple first-round picks before, but this one simply feels different. Sashi spent two years valuing asset collection over winning football games and it has shown itself useful for the new regime currently in place. If the Browns can’t take this roster–which will include the infusion of five picks inside the first two rounds–to success, it will mean they spent years wasting the attempt at winning just to blunder another draft that was stocked full with a historic amount of capital.
Remember, the last time a team selected twice inside the top five was 2000 when the Washington Redskins cashed in on LaVar Arrington and Chris Samuels. It simply doesn’t happen like this often and it will be looked back upon as a historic event in draft history. I have faith in John Dorsey and company to get this thing right and so far they haven’t done anything to force me to think otherwise. But don’t be fooled about the pressure. If we look back in three years and realize they were unable to make the right selections it will be a new all-time low. The pressure is on in Berea, and for the sake of the fanbase, we hope it all works out.
For a week here we get to keep living on the hope Browns fans enjoy and deserve more than just about any other fan base in history. We love to consider how a single draft can change the course of this franchise in the way we have been dreaming about for so many years, and when you give this franchise five picks in two rounds you’re destined to have palpable tension about just how important it is. I firmly believe this is the most important draft we will have seen them participate in to date. Hopefully, we care finally care a little less about the draft this time next year.