The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Browns head into draft with eye on 2025, beyond
Remember the bad old days when the Browns were hopelessly out of playoff contention before Halloween and fans had little to look forward to but the NFL draft the following April?
There is very little buzz in Cleveland about the 2024 draft, which gets underway at 8 p.m. April 25. The three-day event is being staged in Detroit this year.
Maybe the local excitement will build as the time draws closer to the moment NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will say, “The Chicago Bears are on the clock!”, but probably not because the Browns won’t be on the clock until the second day of the draft when they prepare to make the 54th overall pick.
The Browns for the third year in a row are going into the draft without a first-round pick, and for the first time in a long, long time they are heading into the draft without a gaping hole that needs filling. They have a total of six picks — 54 (second round), 85 (third), 156 (fifth), 205 (sixth) plus 227 and 243 (seventh).
The Browns do not have a first-round pick because they traded their firstround picks in 2022, 2023 and 2024 plus more picks in later rounds to the Texans in March 2022 for quarterback Deshaun Watson. They have no glaring needs because, well, Andrew Berry has put together a very competitive roster since taking over as general manager in 2020. But Berry isn’t buying the notion his 2024 roster has no openings.
“The NFL is full of surprises,” Berry said during a draft preview news conference April 18 in Berea. “I don’t think any of us anticipated going into the (2023) season that we would be down three tackles (Jack Conklin, Jedrick Wills and Dawand Jones), Nick Chubb and Deshaun Watson for most of the year, that we would lose (safeties) Grant Delpit, Juan Thornhill and Rodney McLeod late in the season.
“So in terms of spots on the 53 or who’s going to play what, it all looks good in May until adversity hits or something unexpected happens, whether it’s injury or performance.”
Twelve players were on the Browns’ injured reserve list by the end of the 2023 season. Nine of them were starters — linebacker Jacob Phillips, right tackle Conklin, Chubb, Watson plus Delpit, Thornhill and McLeod, left tackle Wills and right tackle Jones.
Defensive tackle Maurice Hurst, return specialist Jakeem Grant and quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson also finished the season on injured reserve.
“The draft has always been about long-term investment in the roster,” Berry said. “It’s rare for a player to come in immediately and play at a starting caliber level. We really look at it with, ‘OK, how are these players going to impact, call it the 2025 to 2027 Cleveland Browns?’ And if they develop quickly and produce with impact in their rookie season, that’s great. Dawand Jones did that. We’re not going to keep them off the field, but we really do look at it in terms of a longterm investment in the team.”
Berry’s research revealed 32% of rookies play an average of 17 snaps a game, and that doesn’t take into account how many of those might be on special teams or late in the game in so-called garbage time.
The Browns would be picking 23rd in the first round if they didn’t trade the pick to Houston.
Berry’s research also showed the first overall pick has a 59% chance of being a starting caliber player or better as a rookie. The success rate drops to 48% for picks 1-20 and to 40% for picks 1-32.
• One of the surprises of the NFL offseason was Mike Vrabel did not get another head coaching job in 2024 after being fired by the Titans. Vrabel was 54-45 in six years coaching the Titans, though he was 7-10 and 6-11 the last two seasons.
The Browns hired Vrabel on March 15 to be a coaching and personnel consultant. So what exactly does that mean?
“Coach Vrabes has been awesome having him up here for a few weeks this offseason,” Browns head
coach Kevin Stefanski said during his news conference April 16 to kick off the 2024 offseason program. “For me and for us, we’re just excited to add a really smart football person into our building. A guy who’s had success as a player, a guy who’s had success as a coach.
“He’s a huge resource for me. He’s a huge resource for Andrew in different, in varying ways. The exact role, how it unfolds, that’s really up to him. And making sure that I’m not asking too much of him, if you will, but I just don’t think you can have enough good people. I’ve been told you can’t have enough good Buckeyes as well.”
Vrabel, born in Akron, played college football at Ohio State and was an assistant defensive coach there from 2011-13.
Browns cornerback Denzel Ward and offensive tackle Dawand Jones also played at Ohio State.
Freeman embraces CF
The Guardians, with a payroll of more than $200 million less than that of the Yankees, are tied with the Yankees for the best record in baseball after 20 games at 14-6.
For the record, the Yankees’ 2024 payroll of $306,157,650 is second only to that of the Mets, which is about $2.4 million higher. The Guardians’ payroll of $100,541,698 ranks 26th among MLB’s 30 teams.
Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge is making $40 million this season. Guardians center fielder Tyler Freeman is making $742,000.
A better comparison for Freeman is Myles Straw. Straw is making $4.5 million to play center field for the Guardians’ Triple-A team in Columbus.
Straw batted 1,236 times and played in 359 games in 2.5 seasons with the Guardians from 202123. He hit three home runs. Total.
Freeman has played 16 games in center field this year. He hit his third home run of the season on April
19 to help the Guardians beat the A’s, 10-2.
Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and firstyear manager Stephen Vogt made the decision in spring training to demote Straw and replace him with Freeman. It is impossible to know whether Straw would still be in center field if Terry Francona were still the manager.
Straw is a spectacular defender in center field, but Freeman certainly doesn’t look lost patrolling the same prairie, and in fact he made a leaping catch to rob the A’s of at least a double April 19.
Freeman is hitting a meager .214, but he is hitting .267 with runners in scoring position. Last year Straw batted .238 and a paltry .205 with runners in scoring position. Straw hit one home run last season after hitting none in 2022.
“I’m having fun,” Freeman said after the Guardians beat the A’s on April 16. “It wasn’t easy, having a whole new everything pretty much.
“We had a mindset coming into spring training that we were going to play as a team and work as hard as we can, and it’s kind of showing right now.”
Freeman has 10 RBI before the season is a month old. Straw had 29 RBI all last season.
I didn’t know that
… until I read my Snapple bottle cap:
In France, it is illegal for the head of a company with 50 or more employees to email an employee after working hours. … A caterpillar has more muscles than a human. Some caterpillars have as many as 4,000 muscles. A human has 639 muscles. … Strawberries are members of the rose family. … The first sailing boats were built in Egypt around 4000 B.C. … A camel can drink 25 gallons of water in less than three minutes. … The sun is actually white. Earth’s atmosphere makes it look yellow.