Cleveland Browns: Ifeatu Melifonwu, CB, Syracuse
General manager Andrew Berry deserves a ton of credit. He entered this offseason needing to add a lot of talent to the Cleveland Browns defense and he’s done that. Berry came to terms with safety John Johnson III, cornerback Troy Hill, linebacker Anthony Walker, defensive tackle Malik Jackson, and defensive ends Jadeveon Clowney and Takkarist McKinley.
These moves made it to where they could realistically enter the 2021 campaign and feel comfortable with their starters. This doesn’t mean they don’t still need to add some more talent, but they can at least field 11 players who are competent.
While that is true, there’s still one position where they need to answer some questions — cornerback. Currently, they have Denzel Ward, Greedy Williams, and Troy Hill as their top three options but Williams missed all of 2020 with a shoulder issue. Ward has also battled injuries and Hill, while incredibly talented, is more of a slot corner.
This means Cleveland would be wise to add someone else who could start at corner and that player could be Ifeatu Melifonwu. The good news here is that Melifonwu likely won’t even need to be a day one pick as he could be there during the second day — which would free Cleveland up to take the best player available in Round 1 (and with guys such as Jaycee Horn, Patrick Surtain, and Greg Newsome possibly already gone by pick 26, they might need to consider the possibility of waiting until Round 2).
If that did happen, it could be a huge win for them because Melifonwu fits their system like a glove. Tall and physical on the outside, he’s capable of doing the same things Greedy Williams can and doesn’t have the worrisome injury history.