I’m not much into NFL Draft grades.

I see the undertaking as silly and rather useless, really. How can you grade the worth of something that hasn’t happened yet? Ask me about this draft in two or three years and I’ll have a lot more to say. But not now.

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At the same time, though, there was a certain satisfaction in seeing that the Browns got extremely high grades from two draft experts. Mel Kiper Jr. rated the Browns as having the best draft in the NFL. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, who has strong Northeast Ohio ties in that he was born in Akron, grew up in Warren and went to Kennedy High School there, and graduated from Mount Union, said the Browns were No. 2, behind only new head coach Mike Vrabel’s New England Patriots.

Again, it remains to be seen how much any of that really means, but it’s better to ranked at the top than to be sitting at the bottom, right?

The Browns, coming off that miserable 3-14 finish last season, appear to be better, at least on paper, but they still have a number of holes, especially at wide receiver and linebacker, to fill. And the offensive line is aging quickly. As such, then, there is still a whole lot of work to do.

The NFL Draft will be hosted by the Pittsburgh Steelers next year. They will be the second AFC North team to host, following the Browns, who did so in 2022. Wonder how long it will be before the division’s other two teams, the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, get the honor?

I thought the Green Bay Packers did an OK job of hosting last week, but there seemed to be way too many instances when there was confusion. It was not nearly as good as last year when the Detroit Lions did a bang-up job of hosting, or also when the Browns did it.

The best part of the draft proceedings in Green Bay was when former Packers greats Jerry Kramer and Dave Robinson came out onto the stage and announced one of the team’s picks. Both are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and were part of the Green Bay team that defeated the defending champion Browns 23-12 in the 1965 NFL Championship Game in the mud at Lambeau Field. Kramer, who was in a wheelchair, and Hall of Famer Gene Hickerson of the Browns are considered the best pulling guards in pro football justify. Robinson, a linebacker, owned a beer distributing company in Akron for 17 years after his retirement from football.

Steve King