Owner said the Browns need to add as many 'really good football players' as possible, in the NFL Draft.
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Cleveland Browns ownership Dee and Jimmy Haslam spoke to the media at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday and spoke on a variety of subjects, including Jimmy Haslam calling the trade for Deshaun Watson a 'big swing and miss'.
In addition to talking about the Watson trade and taking the blame for the trade, Haslam turned to the topic of finding the replacement for Watson. The Browns presently hold the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft on April 24 and many draft pundits expect the Browns to address the quarterback position in the draft.
The Browns have 10 picks in the upcoming draft, including five picks in the top 104 selections.
"The draft is huge for us."Jimmy Haslam said. "It would be great if we could get 'the quarterback,' but we're not going to force it. We're going to be patient and we're going to try to accumulate as many really good football players as we can."
However, Haslam would not commit the Browns would take a quarterback with the second pick, overall.
"I think the message is if the right person's there, we're going to take him,'' Haslam said. "If not, we'll figure it out for a year or two until we get the right person. And I just keep saying, we need good football players. There's good football players in this draft and we got to make sure we get the right ones for us."
There are four quarterbacks that are considered to be in the conversation to be drafted in the first- or second-round for the Browns, including Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Jaxson Dart and Jalen Milroe.
Ward and Sanders have been the most talked about as being considered to be drafted with the top two picks, while Dart, Milroe or possibly Tyler Shough as possible quarterbacks the Browns could trade up to select.
Ward is currently the favorite to be the overall top pick in the NFL Draft by the Titans with the first pick. On Sunday, Browns general manager Andrew Berry termed the possibility 'unlikely' that the Browns would trade up from No. 2 to the No. 1 spot.
After the perceived top two quarterbacks, edge rusher Abdul Carter from Penn State and wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter from Colorado are considered the best two overall players in the draft by many of the national draft experts.
Provided Ward is off the draft board with the first overall pick, the question is what will the Browns do with the second pick. Will they take Sanders or will they select Carter or Hunter?
The Browns also could trade down to accumulate more picks, as well, but the general feeling currently is the Browns would keep their pick and make a selection at No. 2. A general feeling growing is that the Browns would take a non-quarterback at No. 2 and then use their second pick, at the top of the second-round (No. 33 overall) to draft a quarterback or use some of their extra picks to trade back up into the first-round to select a quarterback such as Sanders, Dart or Milroe.