Every year, Cleveland Browns fans get hyped for the NFL Draft. It stems from their team's lack of any meaningful success over the years, so they put all their energy into wanting to believe this is the year that will change everything.
Well, 2026 might actually might be that year.
The team took offensive lineman Spencer Fano at No. 9 overall. They then took two new wide receivers with KC Concepcion at No. 24 and Denzel Boston at pick No. 39. They followed that up by taking safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren at pick No. 58. Those four players were all projected, in pre-draft analysis, as top-32 prospects.
With that new surge of talent, many football experts, including Todd McShay, are now expressing their love for the Browns' picks. On a recent episode of his podcast The McShay Show, the host had this to say about the Browns draft results:
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a more promising feeling coming off an NFL Draft than I do right now about the Cleveland Browns. From a personnel standpoint, I don’t remember looking at a roster and thinking, ‘Oh, they’re actually heading in the right direction.’ They’re stacking some weapons.”
He went on to discuss the good draft picks the Browns made a year ago, including offensive lineman Mason Graham, linebacker Carson Schwesinger, and tight end Harold Fannin. The conversation also dove into the continuous debate about the Cleveland quarterback competition, which now involves Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson. When reflecting on the chaos of a season ago, McShay elaborated:
“It didn’t matter who was in there last year — they didn’t have the cast of players, so you can’t truly evaluate a quarterback until you have the pieces around him. You can actually evaluate Shedeur this year. You couldn’t last year.”
Todd McShay sees something in this Browns roster fans have been waiting for
There have been previous Browns drafts that energized both fans and analysts. But in many of those situations, there may have been one or two draft picks that fans became enamored with. Take, for example, the 2014 NFL Draft when the Browns selected quarterback Johnny Manziel with pick No. 22 in the first round. He was a polarizing figure in the game at the time. That experiment, though, fizzled almost as soon as he was drafted, mainly because Manziel didn't care about getting better at playing football, and he was out of the league in a flash.
A more positive Browns draft of recent memory was the 2018 NFL Draft. In that draft, Cleveland picked quarterback Baker Mayfield, cornerback Denzel Ward, center Austin Corbett, and running back Nick Chubb with their first four selections.
The return the Browns got from that group helped their team with more immediate success as they reached the playoffs in 2020 and again in 2022. However, Ward is the only member from that draft group who still suits up on Sundays in the Orange and Brown gear.
Now the Browns are retooling their weapons, as McShay suggested. The postseason may seem like a reach after the team just came off a 5-12 campaign. However, as McShay suggested, the pieces that this new Cleveland team is assembling will give the quarterbacks a better chance to be evaluated accurately and the team more chances at winning.
This is the best time of the year to be a Browns fan because the hope of this being the year is always at its peak. Only time will truly tell the story, but for now, many fans are excited to see how the story starts to take shape.
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