The latest trade of the 2026 NFL offseason should sting for the Cleveland Browns' front office, and especially general manager Andrew Berry. He just watched his mentor, Howie Roseman, capitalize on a golden opportunity.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Philadelphia Eagles are sending a pair of Day 3 draft picks to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks, a young player with tantalizing talent who’s been buried on the Packers’ crowded wide receiver depth chart.
It’s yet another example of Roseman doing Roseman things, now less than two weeks away from the 2026 NFL Draft. The Eagles have been searching for viable wide receiver depth behind A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith for years, and with Brown widely expected to be traded after the June 1 cutoff this summer, Roseman opted to cover his bases early rather than rely on the uncertainty that comes with draft weekend.
Berry’s been a student of the Roseman school of roster building, bringing Philadelphia’s cash-over-cap methods to Cleveland, along with the Eagles' longtime strategy of stockpiling draft assets, and then flipping those assets for veteran talent to help shore up problem areas along the roster. Snagging an intriguing young receiver like Wicks in exchange for a 2026 fifth-round pick and a 2027 sixth-rounder is a classic Roseman move.
Why wasn’t Berry thinking the same thing? That’s a fair question to ask considering the Browns’ obvious lack of talent at the wide receiver position.
Dontayvion Wicks trade highlights a missed opportunity for the Browns
Berry’s definitely not a carbon copy of Roseman. He’s taken a much more calculated approach as general manager of the Browns, and it’s entirely fair for fans to be demanding more.
If the 2026 regular season started today, the Browns’ top three wideouts would be Jerry Jeudy, Cedric Tillman, and Isaiah Bond. Berry will almost certainly address that group in some fashion later this month during the 2026 NFL Draft, potentially with the sixth overall pick, but leaning on rookies at one of the sport’s premium positions is a dangerous game to play. With all due respect to Malachi Corley, the Browns could use some veteran depth, and a player like Wicks would have immediately moved the needle.
Wicks is far from a superstar, but he has a real chance to be the Eagles’ No. 2 wide receiver this season, assuming they move on from Brown as expected. He’s a strong route-runner who averaged 12.3 yards per reception and scored 11 touchdowns over his three seasons as mostly a rotational player for the Packers.
As Eagles expert Anthony Miller wrote for Inside the Iggles, the price was a bargain. The fifth-round pick that Philadelphia sent to Green Bay is No. 153 overall, and the sixth-rounder next year is nothing but a sweetener. As usual, the Eagles held multiple fifth-round selections this year, and five total on Day 3, so that was a small price to pay for a 24-year-old playmaker with three years of NFL experience.
The Browns easily could have beaten Philly’s offer. Even after the Tytus Howard trade earlier this offseason, Cleveland holds two 2026 fifth-round picks, and both of them are better than No. 153. It was no secret that the Packers were taking calls on Wicks, and the fact that Berry either wasn’t in on the player, or wasn’t willing to match an extremely reasonable offer, is mildly disappointing.
It’s not all doom and gloom. There’s obviously plenty of offseason left for the Browns to make a move to bolster their wide receiver corps. But the clock is ticking ahead of the NFL Draft, and as Roseman has proven time and time again, fortune often favors the bold.