The first two nights of the 2018 NFL Draft are in the books. The Cleveland Browns made three picks on Friday night and we offer up grades for those moves.
The Cleveland Browns were highly active at the beginning of each of the three rounds so far in the 2018 NFL Draft. After taking quarterback Baker Mayfield at No. 1 and cornerback Denzel Ward at No. 4 on Thursday night, they then started things off with two of the first three picks in the second.
Cleveland also owned the final pick in Round 2, but when that one came around they had dropped down a few spaces.
In a deal with the Indianapolis Colts, the Browns moved from No. 64 to No. 67 and received a sixth-round pick (No. 178 overall) in exchange. Here we will look at all those picks and assign a much-too early grade, because why not.
Pick No. 33: Austin Corbett, OL, Nevada
This one was a bit of a head-scratcher. The Browns needed a left tackle after Joe Thomas retired, but the Nevada product projects as a guard. Austin Corbett succeeded Joel Bitonio at Nevada, and like his new teammate in Cleveland, he lacks the arm length expected from a left tackle.
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Bitonio has been perfectly fine at left guard and just signed a five-year extension before the 2017 season. Also agreeing to a five-year deal was Kevin Zeitler, who got $60 million to come over from the Bengals.
Neither should be going anywhere soon, so maybe they see either Bitonio or Corbett as tackles. Or another line of thinking is that Corbett could play center eventually.
Really though, they could have done better to get a solid left tackle prospect like Connor Williams. Unless they wanted to kick Bitonio out to tackle, in which case they could have gone Will Hernandez.
No matter how you slice it, this pick looks rough.
Grade: C-
No. 35: Nick Chubb, RB, Georgia
As soon as the Browns turned in the card for Corbett, the New York Giants were putting theirs in for Will Hernandez. That put the Browns back on the clock before fans even heard the school where Corbett came from.
Here they had a couple of choices. One was to go with a defensive player like Boston College defensive end Harold Landry, or maybe a linebacker like Darius Leonard out of South Carolina State.
Related Story: Browns Draft Profile: Nick Chubb
Instead, they went for a running back — which again they had options. One was to grab LSU’s Derrius Guice, who was a first-round talent that kept sliding. Character concerns were to blame, so the Browns steered clear and took Georgia’s Nick Chubb.
The bruising back recorded more than 1,000 yards in three of his four seasons in Athens, but some were worried about his durability. Chubbs suffered a bad knee injury in 2015, but came back to play 28 games over the past two seasons. Chubb put an exclamation point on his career by rushing for 1,345 yards and 15 touchdowns last year while splitting time with first-round pick Sony Michel. Solid pick here.
Grade: A
No. 67: Chad Thomas, DE, Miami
With their third-round pick — which was acquired in the aforementioned trade with the Colts — the Browns added some depth to their defensive line. The selection was Miami defensive end Chad Thomas. That selection was met with almost as much concern as the Corbett move, but Thomas isn’t a bad pick. They just could have done better.
A smarter play if they wanted to add an edge defender would have been to go with Harold Landry at No. 33. They then could have selected a different offensive lineman at 67 like Geron Christian out of Louisville or Joseph Noteboom from TCU. Both those players would have been better fits even considering they were tackles.
Another option could have been to add defensive tackle help as a player who could have filled a bigger need was sitting there in Harrison Phillips out of Stanford — who unexpectedly fell to the Bills at No. 96.
In the end, the Browns went for Thomas, who was an effective player for the Hurricanes. The 6-foot-5, 281-pound Thomas has more than enough size and could find his way to the field as an interior rusher in the nickel defense. Still, they had a shot to get a starter at another position here or made a more impactful pick at this spot earlier in Landry.
Next: Browns day two instant reactions
Not a bad player, but just a weird pick.