The Cleveland Browns made a trade up into the fourth round to select Howard Wilson, a cornerback out of the University of Houston.
The Cleveland Browns were not scheduled to make a draft selection in the fourth round. Their first selection was not scheduled until pick No. 145 of the fifth round. However, the Browns traded up into the fourth round to pick No. 126 with the Denver Broncos.
Details of the Browns and Broncos draft trade:
#Browns traded Nos. 145 and 175 to #Broncos for Nos. 126 (picked CB Howard Wilson) and No. 252, the second to last selection in draft
— Nate Ulrich (@ByNateUlrich) April 29, 2017
With the pick Cleveland selected cornerback Howard Wilson from Houston.
Howard has good size for the position at 6-foot-1, 184 pounds. In 2016, Howard was a first-team All-American Athletic Conference and led Houston with five interceptions.
NFL draft expert Dane Brugler is high on Wilson and believes he can develop into a starter down the road:
CB Howard Wilson gets in trouble freelancing, but he's always ball-searching and I love the confidence. Down the road starter. #Browns
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) April 29, 2017
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The Browns continued to select young players that have high potential as the cornerback was only a redshirt sophomore.
Wilson’s strength is that he has great ball skills, recording nine career interceptions with Houston. However, his fallback with that is he is a bit of a guesser on route recognition.
According to Pro Football Focus he was one of the top defenders in the country. Quarterbacks had a passer rating of 45.1 when targeting him which was the 13th-best in the nation.
Pick 126: The Browns select Houston CB Howard Wilson. #BrownsDraft
— PFF (@PFF) April 29, 2017
QBs had a passer rating of 45.1 when targeting Wilson, 13th-best in CFB.
Wilson enters a secondary in the need for a lot of help and improvement. The lengthy corner should fight for playing time immediately with his big time playmaking ability.