Cleveland Browns: What to expect from the 2017 draft picks
By Shane Carter
Myles Garrett
The No. 1 overall draft pick is usually, if not always, the pick with the most pressure and expectations. Not just to perform well but to turn a team around. Myles Garrett is no different. Barring an injury, the first defensive end taken can usually have one of two kinds of rookie year: a Joey Bosa-type season (10.5 sacks) or a Dion Jordan-type season (2 sacks).
Myles Garrett, however, may have landed in a great position. Many times, a team has only one dominant pass rusher and the opposing offense can focus on shutting him down or avoiding him. However, Garrett is being paired with Emmanuel Ogbah, a combination that has Browns fans licking their chops.
Ogbah is going to get his sacks because of the attention Garrett will get, and vice versa. It doesn’t look like Garrett’s injury was very significant but it’s still smart for the Browns to limit contact before the season has even started.
Related: Browns must remain careful with Garrett
I’ll predict that Garrett will get at the very least seven sacks this season, but could even go as high as possibly 11. Let’s not get our hopes too high, but understandably, it’s hard not to.
Jabrill Peppers
The team needs secondary help. NEEDS it. Drafting Jabrill Peppers and trading for Calvin Pryor are moves that the team hopes to materialize into a hugely different defense than what was on the field in 2016. Hopefully, the Browns have their safety and returner of the present and future.
Depending on where Pryor plays will dictate where Peppers plays. However, the Browns didn’t use a first-round draft pick on a player to not play him. He probably won’t have the impact that we should expect from Myles Garrett but we know he will be present both as a defender and in the return game. So Peppers could be a fun surprise to have out on the field.
David Njoku
If you look at the last two Browns starting tight ends (Jordan Cameron and Gary Barnidge), both were Pro-Bowl players and they both scored plenty of touchdowns. The tight end position is a high value position to the Browns, and the team just got a more athletic tight end than they previously had.
At Miami, Njoku only played two seasons and totaled 64 catches. However, he averaged 16.6 yards per reception in his career, including scoring a touchdown on an average of one every five receptions in his last season.
He will be plugged right away as a starter, and paired with Seth DeValve to create a formidable tight end duo. I think scoring four touchdowns and being a present force in the run blocking scheme is more than reasonable, so whoever is the starting quarterback in Week 1 and on is going to love this guy.