Plenty of time remains for Browns to get Garoppolo

Another player the Bengals are unlikely to have any shot at, Thomas has played two seasons in college but is regarded as far more advanced than many of the other edge rushers in this class.

He has shown the ability to take over games, as he did in Stanford’s bowl win against North Carolina last season. His father, mother and uncle were college athletes, and Thomas is the best of the bunch.

He doesn’t have ideal height for a defensive end at 6-3, but he makes up for it with strength and quick- ness. It would be surpris- ing to see him fall past the third pick.

The 6-3, 259-pound Bar- nett won’t be drafted before Garrett, but he will forever be ranked ahead of him on another list — career SEC sacks.

Barnett’s 32 career sacks are one more than Garrett’s 31, ranking the Nashville native sixth on the confer- ence’s all-time list. Barnett recorded 13 this past season while earning first team allleague honors.

He was the first freshman to start on the defensive line at Tennessee and was an All-SEC pick all three years. Scouts list his hands and strength as his biggest attributes, which will make him a force against the run as well as the pass.

Growing up in the shadow of Ohio Stadium in suburban Columbus, Charlton never got a scholarship offer from his beloved Buckeyes so he went to their biggest rival.

His career got off to a slow start as he was not a good fit on a three-man front, but when the Wolverines switched to a 4-3 in 2016, Charlton had a breakout senior year with a teamhigh 9.5 sacks and first-team All-Big Ten honors.

Some scouts deem Charlton — whose real first name is Vidauntae — to be a work in progress, but he showed enough flashes last year to hear his name called at some point in the first round, pos- sibly at No. 9. His 6-6, 277pound frame fits the Bengals.

Consid e re d a top-five defensive end by most, Harris was only a second team all-league selection in the talent-rich SEC.

The 6-3, 253-pound Harris had steep competition in his own meeting room, resulting in his being redshirted behind eventual pros Shane Ray (Broncos) and Markus Golden (Cardinals) as a freshman.

But in his first year as a starter Harris led the SEC with 18.5 tackles for loss, and last year he recorded a career-high nine sacks. His size will be of some concern against NFL tackles, but he’s likely a late first-round pick or an early one in the second.

Two weeks out from the NFL draft, don’t forget Jimmy Garoppolo.

Instead, remember this: Exactly one week before the 2016 draft, the Browns decided they would wait for an answer at quarterback better than the one they thought they would get by drafting North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz.

They traded the No. 2 overall pick to Philadelphia. Part of the returns, a No. 12 overall pick this year, is in reserve as part of what it probably would take to obtain Garoppolo from New England.

Reports that Bill Belichick won’t consider a trade can be laughed off. He has made a career of winning with rosters built on barter.

If playing hard to get makes any team pay extra for fear of not getting what it wants, Belichick is all for it.

Belichick is always all ears, according to a personnel man who worked with him in Cleveland and NewEngland.

“It’s one-stop shopping with Bill,” Michael Lombardi told NFL Network. “All you have to do is pick up the phone. It’s easy to make a trade with him.”

Forget the notion that any Browns swap for Garoppolo should have happened by now. With Belichick, a deal can happen any time.

It can unfold in training camp, as it did in August 2014, when Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins was shipped to Tampa Bay for a fourthround pick and tight end Tim Wright.

It can happen the week a season begins, as it did in 2007 when Belichick pried a first-round pick out of Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks in exchange for wideout Deion Branch.

It can happen in the mid- dle of season, as seen last Oct. 31, when he sent starting linebacker Jamie Collins to the Browns.

It can happen the month before the draft, as it did recently when Belichick gave the Saints this year’s firstround pick and the thirdround pick he got in the Collins deal for wideout Bran- din Cooks.

It can happen on draft day, something that has been going on for a long time with this man. Ten years ago, for example, Belichick was on the clock with the No. 28 overall pick when the 49ers called, desperate to get offensive tackle Joe Staley to protect former No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith. Belichick agreed to accept a package that included San Francisco’s first-round pick the next year. It turned into a No. 10 overall choice, spent on Jerod Mayo.

And, yes, a trade with Belichick can involve his intriguing backup quarterback. Two months before the 2009 draft, he sent Matt Cassel to the Chiefs for a second-round pick, at No. 34 overall.

Cassel had compiled a 10-5 record in 2008 while replacing an injured Tom Brady. Garoppolo was a mere 2-0 starting in place of Brady in 2016.

Whereas Belichick originally obtained Cassel with a seventh-round pick, he spent a second-rounder on Garoppolo and will factor the trade price accordingly.

The Browns are the haves and the Super Bowl champion Patriots are the havenots in the April 27-29 draft.

New England is not scheduled to make a pick until the third round, at No. 72 overall. Cleveland is scheduled to be on the clock at No. 1, No. 12, No. 33, No. 52 and No. 65 before then.

The Browns also own four selections within the first two rounds in 2018.

New England needs picks. A quarterback the Browns arguably need, one the Patriots probably won’t even use, is in play.

Sure, there are plenty of reasons to suppose Garoppolo won’t be a Brown.

Brady is coming off a fifth Super Bowl title, but he will turn 40 in August. Browns coach Hue Jackson might be convinced he can turn one of the draft prospects (Mitch Trubisky, Deshaun Watson, DeShone Kizer, Patrick Mahomes) into a quarterback as good as Garoppolo, without making a trade.

Yet, unlike any rookie, Garoppolo has seen NFL action in three seasons’ worth of preseason games. He looked good on the field in two real games last September. He was drafted higher than the former Brady backups who have had spotty (if any) pro success.

There has been a long lull since the splash of Garoppolo-to-Cleveland stories at the Super Bowl.

Yet, this still smells like a deal waiting to happen.