Browns First Round – Maybe, for a lineman

By STEVE KING

The Browns do not have a first-round pick in the NFL Draft in a week and a half, relinquishing it – it was No. 17 overall — in the trade with the New York Giants to get wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Their first selection isn’t until the middle of the second round at No. 49 overall.

I firmly believe that aggressive Browns General Manager John Dorsey, who doesn’t want to wait that long to pick, will trade into the first round to get a highly-rated player at a position of need.

It’s impossible to tell who, exactly, Dorsey may be targeting. After all, no one saw him targeting quarterback Baker Mayfield last year until just hours before the draft, and those who did still weren’t absolutely sure until it actually happened.

However, it’s not hard to figure out the positions that Dorsey might go after – the lines on both sides of the ball.

When you have an heirloom, as the Browns do with Mayfield, you want to do everything you can to protect it/him, for if the unthinkable happens and he gets hurt, then the Browns are sunk and their lofty dreams no longer attainable. That thinking seems to indicate a move to bolster the offensive line, a position area that, despite its good play in the second half of last season, still makes me a little uneasy, especially if Austin Corbett doesn’t develop as expected. And I think it makes Dorsey a little concerned, too.

So, that would be my first choice for where Dorsey would go.

However, if there’s no offensive lineman worth taking that high, then I think he’ll go get a defensive lineman. Another way to help Mayfield is for the Browns to be stout up front defensively so as to get the ball back for the offense, either via turnovers on sacks/fumbles or interceptions, or simply three-and-out possessions.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have, for decades, made a living out of being stout along both lines. To unseat them – yes, despite the Baltimore Ravens edging out the Steelers for the division crown and the Steelers losing their two best players in wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell in the offseason, I still think beyond any shadow of a doubt that Pittsburgh is the team to beat in the AFC North – the Browns have to get better at the point of attack.