Since the Cleveland Browns have never been to the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft seems to have taken the championship game’s place as the biggest football event of the season in northeast Ohio.
When the Browns were going through the teardown days of 1-15 and 0-16, talk about the draft started as early as October and consumed the thoughts of pigskin supporters for six months before the actual process.
Now that the Browns have improved have still had a playoff shot into December in each of the last three seasons, the draft talk has moved back a couple of months.
Compounding things for the draft obsessed is that the Browns have traded their first-round picks last year, this year, and next year for QB Deshaun Watson. It’s difficult to talk about who to draft when your team’s first choice comes on the second day of the event, which is when Cleveland will make its first selection at #42.
To mitigate these circumstances, both fans and media have found a remedy: The Browns should trade one of their best players, usually RB Nick Chubb, for draft picks.
This is a ludicrous solution.
First of all, we understand fans are irritated with the organization because they haven’t made the playoffs each of the last two season, but they certainly are in playoff contention mode.
One reason they will use to justify the move is salary cap space, but the cap is due to increase in 2023, and we are sure the Browns (as well as every team) will talk to players making a lot of money and get them to restructure their deals to create more space, and of course, there will be roster adjustments as well.
Our main objection to this is we find pretty improbable that trading great players, and Chubb is a great player, finishing second in the league in rushing this season, is a good way to make your team better. It would seem a better method would be to strengthen the roster around the great players you have, names like Myles Garrett, Joel Bitonio, and yes, Chubb.
That trio has pretty much made every All-Pro team announced in the last six weeks.
The logic on trading Chubb is the running game is de-emphasized in today’s NFL, so a running back that gained over 1500 yards on the ground isn’t needed. It certainly is a passing league, but the Ravens, Giants, Eagles, 49ers, Cowboys, and Bills, all playoff teams, finished in the top ten in the league in running the football.
But the primary argument against moving a running back that good is there is no assurance that you will find a better than average runner in the draft. Folks just assume that everyone available in the draft (or farm system for baseball fans) is going to be good.
They aren’t.
Could D’Ernest Johnson or Jerome Ford gain 1000 behind the Browns’ offensive line? Probably with enough carries. However, would defenses pay the same attention to those backs as they do to Chubb? We believe they wouldn’t.
Fans and media folks also use faulty logic. One sports talker said because Kansas City’s Isiah Pacheco was a 7th round pick and gained 830 yards, this is proof the Browns could find someone like that in the draft. FYI, the Raiders picked RB Brittain Brown one pick before Pacheco.
Brown played six games and didn’t have a carry for Las Vegas this season.
So, not every 7th round running back produces like Pacheco.
The way a professional sports team gets better is by ADDING talent. If you aren’t a contender and you can accumulate draft picks for a rebuild, that’s a different story.
We love Nick Chubb as a player, but because running back is devalued by other teams, we don’t think the Browns would get a first round pick anyone, unless it was a Super Bowl contender, and where would that pick fall?
Thankfully, Andrew Berry is the Browns’ GM and not sportstalk hosts or callers. We bet he feels like we do.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 