After a day of speculation around the Cleveland Browns' willingness to hear teams out on their offers for their 2nd overall pick, they finally pulled the trigger on a move that's led to them missing out completely on a two-in-one player - they moved the No. 2 pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange for the fifth overall pick and the Jaguars' 2026 first rounder.
ESPN's Adam Schefter was first with the details of the trade. The Browns are also sending out their fourth round pick and a sixth round pick, and they're also getting back the 36th overall pic and a fourth rounder in this year's draft.
All day leading up to the event, multiple reporters including NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, The Athletic's Dianna Russini, and Fox Sports' Jordan Schultz have been pointing to the fact that general manager Andrew Berry was ready and willing to part with the second overall pick and, essentially, Hunter.
And, after all of that speculation, the deal actually came to life.
Browns fans might be wondering why Cleveland would make such a move. The only explanations that make sense at this time are that they wanted extra capital later in the first round in order to take a quarterback, and they felt like they might be doing Hunter a disservice by taking him when they haven't even established who their next starting quarterback would be.
Read more: Browns reportedly open to moving two key defenders ahead of NFL draft
These aren't exactly salient arguments. The Browns can use all the talent they can nab in this year's draft, and by skirting around Hunter to land extra draft capital, they've given up a sure-fire chance at creating a top offense in a few seasons in order to add more depth to the team. You should always be aiming for the potentially franchise altering player when given the chance to pick them.
That said, we now will wait to see what the team plans to do with their TKTK overall pick, received in this trade. Ideally, they'll select someone who can add a pop to their offense in the same way that Hunter would have, and they'll now also likely pursue a cornerback somewhere in this draft with Hunter no longer a plug and play option for them on that side of the ball.