Daily Dawg Tags: Draft week is finally here!
By Thomas Moore
The Cleveland Browns have 11 picks in the 2017 NFL Draft, which will finally take place starting Thursday night with the first round of selections.
Welcome to draft week, Browns fans!
The 2017 NFL Draft will take place Thursday through Saturday in Philadelphia, with the Cleveland Browns set to start things off at 8 p.m. as they currently own the No. 1 overall selection. All told, the currently hold five of the first 65 selections and 11 picks overall:
- Round 1: No. 1 and No. 12
- Round 2: No. 33 and No. 52
- Round 3: No. 65
- Round 4: No. 108.
- Round 5: No. 145, No. 175 and No. 181
- Round 6: No. 185 and No. 188
All that draft capital should allow the Browns to come out of the weekend having significantly upgraded the team, according to executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown:
"“I talked about this before, and in particular last year, we felt like we needed to add a lot of young talent to the roster so that really drove a lot of the decisions last year. We do think we are positioned obviously very differently than where we were coming out of 2015 so the need to continue to acquiring high-value picks is less intense this year. We feel really good about having effectively two draft classes through the first two rounds and sitting at No. 65, as well.”"
We are only four days away from the draft. Between now and then we will have more draft profiles, rumors, speculation and all the latest news about what the Browns will do, should do and are rumored to be doing.
Should be a fun week!
Cleveland Browns:
Warren Sapp is not a fan of Myles Garrett
After months of speculation, the Browns are expected to do the right thing and select Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett with the first pick of the 2017 NFL Draft. If they do, executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown should not expect a congratulatory phone call, email, text, Tweet or Telegram from former defensive lineman turned TV analyst Warren Sapp.
The Browns are not drafting Mitchell Trubisky at No. 1
The Cleveland Browns are set to take a difference maker with the top pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. But that hasn’t cooled speculation about Mitchell Trubisky.
Is cornerback a priority for the Browns in the draft?
The Cleveland Browns still have several holes to fill on the roster as they head into the 2017 NFL Draft, most notably in the secondary at the safety position. The draft should bring help to the weakest position on the defense – possibly as early as the first round with LSU’s Jamal Adams and Ohio State’s Malik Hooker the most likely candidates. But Browns fans should also keep an eye on the cornerback position as the draft unfolds.
ESPN offers a grim outlook on 2017 for the Browns
ESPN’s NFL Nation reporters went through and predicted each game in 2017, and the Cleveland Browns didn’t fare too well in the predictions.
Mitchell Trubisky draft profile
Since the Cleveland Browns came back into the NFL in 1999 they have been looking for a franchise quarterback. Could homegrown talent Mitchell Trubisky be the answer?
NFL news:
Players recovering from injury can be draft steals (USA Today)
"Rehab is trending as an X-factor for the NFL draft. Consider the assortment of top prospects coming off of surgeries.Reuben Foster, the Alabama linebacker, is healing from shoulder surgery. Washington’s blazing receiver John Ross, is rehabbing a shoulder, too, while his college teammate, cornerback Sidney Jones, tore an Achilles tendon while working out on pro day. Another cornerback, Fabian Moreau, can relate. Moreau tore a pectoral muscle while trying to impress scouts with his bench-press at UCLA’s pro day."
Chargers hope to excel at draft – spreadsheets and all (Los Angeles Times)
"Every NFL general manager needs a system. In the buildup to the NFL draft, years of in-person scouting, hours of film study and mountains of notes about details large and small need to be distilled down to an easy-to-navigate list, ranking the football players that’ll best help your football team. And if your system is flawed, you’ll drown in a flash flood of information. Luckily for Chargers General Manager Tom Telesco, he’s got a sturdy life raft built out of rows and columns."
How NFL teams monitor prospects’ social media accounts (ESPN)
"The influence of social media during the NFL draft reached an all-time high this time last year. Laremy Tunsil landed in the center of controversy after his Twitter account was hacked moments before the draft and someone posted a video of Tunsil smoking a substance from a bong while wearing a gas mask. It dominated the first night of draft conversation and contributed to Tunsil’s fall from a projected top-five pick to the Miami Dolphins at No. 13 overall. Whether hacked or not, players are responsible for their social media accounts, and the fallout is enough that NFL teams have made it part of their evaluation process."
Time for Saints to trade for Malcolm Butler is approaching (Times-Picayune)
"We’re nearly two months removed from the start of the New Orleans Saints’ flirtation with Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler. Now that Butler signed his restricted free agent deal with New England less than a week ago, I’d be stunned if Butler didn’t become a member of the Saints by the end of Round 1 of the NFL Draft on Thursday."