Cleveland Browns receive two compensatory draft picks

The Cleveland Browns will receive two compensatory draft picks due to the loss of front office executive Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. 

Your Cleveland Browns will receive two third-round compensatory draft picks, one in 2022 and one in 2023, because the Minnesota Vikings signed away analytics expert Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to be their next general manager, according to Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal as well as many other sources.

Adofo-Mensah was one of the Browns brilliant young Ivy League analytics stars, with economics degrees from Princeton University as well as Stanford University. He had been the Browns’ Vice President of Football Operations under general manager Andrew Berry.

Those who have scoffed at economics need to understand that knowing how to block is great, but contracts are signed with money, and draft picks are traded like stocks. Men like John Dorsey are truly great evaluators of talent, but you can’t let a man like Dorsey write a contract, manage the salary cap, or trade draft picks. The hiring of the 41-year old Adofo-Mensah provides increasing evidence that the Browns analytics-based approach is in fact catching on in the NFL.

Adofo-Mensah was a day trader on Wall Street. It will be curious to see how he responds o the challenge of managing a salary cap with a $45 million hit from a 34-year-old quarterback in 2022.

The Cleveland Browns have generally been a major force in the football universe for ethnic diversity since their inception in 1946, so not to berate the point, but Adofo-Mensah is the first person of Ghanaian descent to hold any number of positions in professional football, just about every time he gets hired into a new position.

In his introductory press conference with the Vikings, Adofo-Mensah said of his mentor Andrew Berry, “Cleveland, you have a rock star in that seat. Please appreciate him.” It truly is a compliment if another organization hires someone from the Browns front office. That just could never have happened a few years ago.

In a way, it was fortunate that Adofo Mensah was selected, because otherwise the Browns were scheduled to receive zero compensatory draft picks in this year’s NFL draft, while the Baltimore Ravens will receive three, the Pittsburgh Steelers will receive one (or possibly two), and the Cincinnati Bengals will receive one. Does anyone else think that that is a problem, or are we all pretty much okay with throwing away NFL draft picks in Cleveland?