Travis, Shedeur and the Browns

By: Josh Frey-Sam

The trade for the No. 2 overall pick still irks me.

I’ve vented to friends and family, and on a podcast since the Cleveland Browns dealt the right to select Travis Hunter to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday, and yet, I’m still not over it.

I’m not even a Browns fan. Thank god, because it would’ve eaten away at me even more.

To remind you, the Jags traded the No. 5, No. 36 (second-rounder) and No. 126 (fourth-round pick) in this year’s draft, plus their 2026 first-round pick, in exchange for the No. 2 pick, and a fourth and sixth-round pick this year.

The Browns selected IDL Mason Graham with the 5th overall pick, which many fans found to be an underwhelming pick with running back Ashton Jeanty still available.

For the record, I’m not upset that the Browns selected Graham. I think he’s going to be a rock in the middle of that front-four for the better part of the next decade. What I’m pressed about is the Browns passing on Hunter.

The term “generational talent” is thrown around way too much, but it’s fitting for Hunter. He plays receiver and cornerback at an elite level, the first player most of us have ever watched do that.

I don’t want to crown him before he plays a snap in the NFL, but listen to anything that’s been said about him in the last few months, and one thing is clear: this is a budding superstar.

And you never pass on a superstar.

Case and point: look at who the New York Giants, a team with Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns, selected with the next pick. Drafting for need is thrown out the window when you’re talking about blue-chip prospects.

The Browns selected a pair of RBs with the two picks they received from Jacksonville, Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson, who figure to be a solid tandem.

The swinger, and the key point for people who are in favour of the trade, is that first-round pick next year.

The point I’ve heard most is, ‘The Browns are preparing to land a quarterback next year.’

Yes, it’s true that next year’s quarterback class projects to be a good one. But believe me when I say no competent franchise banks on prospects in the following year’s class. There’s too much risk involved with that, even when you’re thinking about a prospect like Arch Manning or Drew Allar, who I’m extremely bullish on.

If it works out for the Browns and they can draft a potential star QB, then perhaps the trade was worth it. But I can confidently tell you that next year’s class won’t have a prospect of Travis Hunter’s calibre.

The Browns continued with what we’ll call an interesting draft. It’s too early to say I hate it, but I certainly don’t love it.

Their second pick, LB Carson Schwesinger, was shockingly the first player off the board in the second round. His selection was particularly notable when thinking about the future of standout LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who suffered a significant neck injury in Week 8 last season.

The word a couple of months ago was that JOK’s status was still up in the air, and the Schwesinger pick tells me the team could be preparing for life without him.

I like the third-round selection of TE Harold Fannin Jr., who could be a tremendous mismatch for the Browns as early as next season after David Njoku leaves for free agency.

Then there are the final two selections, Dillon Gabriel (3rd round) and Shedeur Sanders (5th round), who make up two-fifths of one of the most interesting QB rooms I can ever remember seeing.

Let me just say that I hate this situation for Shedeur.

He undeservedly fell to the fifth round and is now clearly last in the pecking order. In other words, he is nothing more than a camp arm at this point — someone who won’t get many reps during training camp and will be lucky to play a couple of series in a preseason game.

By selecting him in the fifth round, there’s also a lot less pressure on the Browns to keep Sanders on their roster than there would be if he were selected in the first three rounds.

It’s a steep uphill battle, which is made worse by the optics that GM Andrew Barry and HC Kevin Stefanski didn’t want him anyway, but I will be rooting for him.

The murkiest part about this is I’m not sure what the Browns’ plan of attack was for this QB room. Deshaun Watson is unlikely to play this season, and you still have Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett locked in, while Gabriel has the inside track at a roster spot purely based on his draft position. Now you (owner Jimmy Haslem) decide to add Sanders to the mix?

Are they, in fact, punting on this season? To me, that doesn’t make much sense, beucase if the Browns are picking in the top-five next year, then I believe there will be calls for Barry and Stefanski’s jobs.

I don’t think this is what Myles Garrett had in mind when he spoke about believing the team had a plan at quarterback.

To me, this draft was a bit unorganized and underwhelming for Cleveland. It started by passing on the best player in the draft and ended with a head-scratching pick at quarterback, albeit one that everyone expected them to make anyway.

It could be some time before we see their vision come to fruition.

Tomorrow, I will talk about the rest of the draft.

Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Josh