Could the Browns swing a deal for the Colts first-round pick?

The Cleveland Browns have draft assets and the Indianapolis Colts may be open to a trade. Could the two teams work out a deal?

The Cleveland Browns have been extremely busy the past two years during the three-day NFL Draft.

The club selected 14 players in the 2016 draft and added 10 more in the 2017 draft.

Not all of those players remain on the team, but with a two-year draft haul that included wide receiver Corey Coleman, defensive ends Emmanuel Ogbah and Myles Garrett, tight end David Njoku, right tackle Shon Coleman, safety Jabrill Peppers and Pro Bowl linebacker Joe Schobert, there is a large number of players who make up the core of the roster.

General manager John Dorsey will head into the 2018 NFL Draft in a similar position as the Browns have 12 selections at their disposal — including picks No. 1 and No. 4 in the first round and three selections in the second round.

Now, despite what you may have heard in recent months, the Browns do have some actual players on the roster so it seems highly unlikely that Dorsey will select 12 players when the draft rolls around at the end of April.

Which is where the Indianapolis Colts come into the picture.

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With NFL coaches and front office executives in Mobile, Ala., this week for the Senior Bowl, scuttlebutt is easy to come by, and Tony Pauline of draftanalyst.com reports that the Indianapolis Colts are open to the idea of trading the No. 3 overall selection in an attempt to add more draft assets.

It’s not going to happen, but no one currently has more draft assets that Dorsey and the Browns, so why not give Colts general manager Chris Ballard a call?

Despite what some media members and fans seem to believe, NFL teams are not mandated to use Jimmy Johnson’s outdated draft value chart when it comes to making trades. But since Dorsey is an “old-school football guy,” let’s go with the chart and see what it would take if Dorsey were to call up Ballard and attempt to work out a deal for the Colts first-round pick.

The No. 3 overall pick is worth 2,200 points, so if Dorsey were to offer Ballard all three of the Browns second-round picks – No. 33, No. 35 and No. 63 – that would total 1,406 points and be off to a good start.

Dorsey would obviously have to sweeten the deal and even if he were to offer the remaining six picks in his pocket that would not be enough. That means he would have to pull back one of the second rounders, likely No. 63, and throw in Cleveland’s first-round pick in 2019 – and hope it falls outside of the top 10.

It would be risky, and it would mean that Ballard was open to some delayed gratification when it comes to the draft, but the payoff of having three of the first four selections in this year’s first round would put a major exclamation point on Dorsey’s first draft in Cleveland.

Next: Browns Senior Bowl watch: Baker Mayfield

Again, this is all just wild speculation and would probably never happen. But this is the NFL’s silly season, so what’s the harm in embracing the madness for a little bit of harmless speculation?