Cleveland Browns: Which WR prospect will be the best fit at No. 13?
By John Suchan
The Cleveland Browns are likely to take a wide receiver at No. 13 in the draft. Which college prospect would be the best fit for the team?
One of the bigger decisions this offseason for the Cleveland Browns involves trying to improve their wide receivers’ room. At the moment there are several different storylines to follow involving this area of the team.
At the forefront of these involves what the team will do with Jarvis Landry. If Cleveland decides to release him from his contract, they’d save a lot of money and have more cap money to spend on future acquisitions.
The well-talked-about wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. left the Browns midseason, joined the Los Angeles Rams, and now has won his first Super Bowl. The departure of Beckham Jr. sent waves through the team ever since and it’s highlighted some dysfunction within the team.
Much of that has to do with the quarterback Baker Mayfield, who painfully played through injuries this season, but those injuries and his psyche took a hit too and it’s been the cause of much debate amongst fans of the Browns.
Getting the quarterback situation under control would be the first step in revamping the offense. If Mayfield is still here by the start of training camp, then the team needs to zero in on what wide receivers to either try and bring in via free agency or through the draft.
There are several high-profile free-agent wide receivers like Mike Williams, from the Los Angeles Chargers or Chris Godwin from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that could be available to the Browns, but they’d come at a high price.
The other option that might be more realistic for the team is drafting a wide receiver in the upcoming NFL Draft in April. There are many good players at the wide receiver position that the Browns could take but much of that decision will involve what player would be the best fit for this team.
The complaints from fans and others that analyze the team is that they haven’t had a receiver that could stretch the field, keeping opponents’ secondaries honest. In many games this past season, several opponents would crowd the line of scrimmage, knowing that the team couldn’t expand the field with speedy playmakers. These teams were able to take away the Browns run game too and forced the Cleveland quarterback to try and win games with his arm.
The need for a wide receiver that can separate from his opponent on the playing field seems ideal. There are several of those types of receivers in the draft. But the team needs a reliable wide receiver who can also catch the ball consistently and give Mayfield a big target.
Some will argue at this point that it won’t matter who the Browns bring in at wide receiver, either through the draft or in free agency because Mayfield is the larger issue here and is why a player like Beckham Jr. forced his way out of town. They’ll argue that Mayfield has lost his confidence and zeros in too much on a target and has failed more than he’s succeeded.
Regardless, of all of that, or if the team brings in a new quarterback in its future the team needs better wide receivers.
Let’s now take a look at a few of the possible wide receivers available in this year’s draft. There are several different options and they all could benefit the Browns long term in the wide receiver room.