5 positions Cleveland Browns don’t need to target in 2022 NFL Draft

You can’t draft everyone, especially since the  Cleveland Browns have traded away their first-round pick for a new quarterback this year. So what position do the Browns not need to focus on? 

As NFL Draft Day nears, fans everywhere argue about who to draft. Do they draft according to the best athlete available, or the biggest need? In reality, teams use a hybrid approach. Yes, they draft the best athlete available, but no, not when the position group is already filled. For example, when it is the Cleveland Browns turn to draft, odds are they are not going with a guard?

Not with Wyatt Teller and Joel Bitonio in the way. If the best athlete available is a guard, they will trade back or else just draft someone else. They are simply not drafting a guard, at least not early.

Never say never with the Browns, but everyone will be totally shocked if they draft a running back with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt manning the position — not to mention D’Ernest Johnson and Demetric Felton — unless a trade is made.

Those two are freebies because they are so obvious.

This article will discuss the position groups that the Browns are unlikely to try to augment via the NFL draft this year. Guard and running back are so obvious that they scarcely merit any discussion. The Browns will definitely not draft the best athlete available if it means selecting from those two position groups.

Slightly less obvious is the cornerback position, where the Browns have just signed All-Universe cornerback Denzel Ward at one corner spot, with All-Rookie Greg Newsome at the other side. Greedy Williams made a great comeback from nerve damage in his shoulder, returning to form in 2021. He too is a cover corner.

Troy Hill usually mans the slot corner position. A.J. Green was an extra defensive back, though without the top gear of some of the others. Yet the old axiom that a team can never have too many cornerbacks is true. The Browns could draft a cornerback anyway. Put it this way, if they draft a cornerback, it would be less surprising than if they draft a guard.

This article will attempt to identify areas that are unlikely to receive draft attention, especially in the early rounds, even though it might come as a bit of a surprise.

First up is slot receiver, which many observers believe is a weakness, but this fan believes has had a backlog of candidates ever since Kevin Stefanski came to town.