2017 NFL Draft: Who Are Cleveland Browns Picking At No. 1?
The Cleveland Browns have a home run with the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, but with doubts now, who will they take with the first pick?
Considering the enormity of their rebuilding project ahead of them, the Cleveland Browns couldn’t have asked for a better outcome to 2016. With a win over an injury-ravaged then-San Diego Chargers team, they avoided the dreaded winless record. More importantly, though, their 1-15 mark earned them the No. 1 selection in the 2017 NFL Draft — the first pick.
From the time that they were locked in at No. 1 until just a few weeks prior to the draft, the first pick in the 2017 NFL Draft seemed like a lob down the pipe waiting for the Browns to hit a home run. Texas A&M edge rusher Myles Garrett is a generational type talent that can not just help build, but revolutionize a defense. Pairing him with Jamie Collins on the Browns would make the beginnings of a formidable duo.
Yet, in recent weeks, there has been growing buzz regarding former North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. A native of Mentor, OH and, thus, a would-be adoptive son of Cleveland if he were to be taken by the Browns.
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As arguably the top quarterback in the draft — though up to interpretation, surely — that is considered a down year at the position, the thought was that Cleveland might be able to get Trubisky with the 12th overall pick, which they own from the Philadelphia Eagles. At the very least, all they would need to do would be trade up with that pick and some of their other immense capital into the top 10 to nab the former Tar Heel. Thus, they’d land a game-changer in Garrett and a potential franchise quarterback in the first round.
Instead, reports have ramped up in the week prior to the 2017 NFL Draft that might not be the Browns’ plans. For whatever reason, Cleveland is reportedly giving serious consideration to taking Trubisky over Garrett with the first pick of the 2017 NFL Draft. So, naturally, fans are left wondering the simple question that they hadn’t thought they’d need to: Who are the Browns taking with the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft?
First, let’s just say that there’s no way to know definitively what their plans are without being in their war room. With that said, there are several things that we can surmise about what their plans are.
As noted on NFL Spin Zone earlier in the week by Pete Smith in his Browns draft thoughts, Cleveland most certainly likes Trubisky. He has the tools to be a good-to-great NFL quarterback, though it’s no guarantee. With that said, it’s in the Browns best interests for the 31 other teams in the leagues to think they are taking him over Garrett with the first pick.
That smokescreen sends teams scrambling when they otherwise could’ve been sitting on their hands. What’s more, it may allow them to broker a trade to get more draft capital in the first and second round with the 12th pick if a team feels they need to move up.
Put simply, I don’t see any way that Myles Garrett isn’t going to the Cleveland Browns with the first pick. It doesn’t matter if the organization hasn’t had a reliable quarterback since 1999. A team still can’t pass up the clear-cut best player in the draft at a position of need and increasing importance in the modern NFL for a far less talented prospect because of the position he plays.
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Maybe there’s merit to these rumors about Trubisky, or maybe it is a smokescreen to send the rest of the NFL into a panic. But Myles Garrett will be who the Browns take first overall in the 2017 NFL Draft in my mind — until the point of if Roger Goodell says Mitchell Trubisky.