Berry: RT can move to left side

The Browns need to find a left tackle in the NFL draft that begins April 23, and though General Manager Andrew Berry won’t say which player he prefers, he did reveal his philosophy during a conference call April 10.

The Browns have been looking for a left tackle since Joe Thomas retired in March 2018. Berry is not restricting his search to those who played left tackle exclusively in college. That’s important because it means Tristan Wirfs, a right tackle at Iowa, or Jedrick Wills, a right tackle at Alabama, could be the choice if either is still on the board when the Browns make the 10th pick in the first round.

“I think the distinction between left and right tackle is really outdated,” Berry said. “We’re no longer in the days of football where teams will have their best rusher just line up on the defensive right, the offensive left side of the formation.

“From my perspective, tackles are tackles. In terms of making the switch, there probably is some muscle memory that needs to be reprogrammed for people that played one side or the other for a long period of time, but Jack Conklin (signed by the Browns as a free agent last month) was a college left tackle that has been pretty well-accomplished right tackle in our league.”

Berry pointed to Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith as someone who played right tackle in college. Smith, a first-round pick from USC in 2011, played right tackle as a rookie and then switched to left tackle. He has been to seven straight Pro Bowls.

“I think sometimes those distinctions are a bit overemphasized,” Berry said. “In today’s game, the two tackle positions might not be identical, but they’re pretty close.”

Berry will be conducting his first draft in very unusual circumstances. All 32 teams are facing the same challenge.

Because of the novel coronavirus, team officials will have to conduct the draft remotely instead of having everyone gathered around the table in what is commonly called the war room.

The walls of the Browns’ war room in the past have been filled with names of potential draft picks. Now that information has to be transferred electronically to all the remote locations in the Cleveland area Berry and his staff will be working from during the draft.

“This is maybe where my particular age demographic is perhaps a little bit helpful,” said Berry, at 32 the youngest general manager in the NFL. “In terms of physically moving things, that’s really not a challenge for us. The bigger challenge is just setting up effective communication protocols because you do run into issues sometimes where someone at their home doesn’t have a strong Internet signal and maybe they go out for a few minutes.

“In terms of our information, a lot of that is housed in our internal database. We live in the age of technology where we have FaceTime, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and just even picking up the phone and giving people a call. From that perspective, it’s different, but it’s not a challenge that is insurmountable by any means.”

Teams are not allowed to invite prospects to their facilities, nor are they allowed to travel to work out players because of COVID-19 restrictions. That presents the problem of not getting physical exams on players who did not attend the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis in February.

“Fortunately, (Senior Vice President of Player Health and Development) Joe Sheehan and our medical staff, every year they’ve done a good job of leveraging their relationships to really get the information we need from the different campuses on prospects who are not Combine eligible,” Berry said. “There is a little more sight work this year compared to prior years, but we’re still going to be at a really good place for the players who are in consideration for us in the draft and then after the draft.”

The Browns have seven picks in this year’s draft – 10th overall in the first round and then 41st (second round), 74th and 97th (third round), 115th (fourth round), 187th (sixth round) and 244th (seventh round). The Browns do not have a fifth-round pick.

The first round will be conducted April 23, rounds two and three April 24 and the final four rounds April 25.

The draft will be televised on ESPN and NFL Network.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Browns general manager Andrew Berry will be conducting his first NFL Draft under unusual circumstances.