BROWNS REMAIN QUIET THROUGH FIRST ROUND OF DRAFT

By STEVE KING

There were 200,000 people who attended the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft in Nashville, Tenn. on Thursday night.

The Browns were among them. They watched the entire three-hour, 55-minute proceedings, but did not participate.

Indeed, for the first time since 2008, when they did not make their first pick until the fourth round, and just the eighth time overall since they entered the NFL in 1950, the Browns did not make a pick in the first round of the draft.

Yes, the team that has been perched near the top of the draft for the last decade, and throughout most of this nightmarish expansion era since 1999, as a “reward” for bad seasons in the league’s attempt to try to make bottom-feeder teams better, made nary a peep.

It was astonishing that Browns General Manager John Dorsey, who has been known for pushing the envelope – and then some – in his short time here to take calculated risks in an attempt to try to get the club back on track as quickly as possible, did not trade into the first found to grab a talented player who was falling through the evening for whatever reason. Such a move would have been right up his alley.

But it did not happen, and as such the Browns, if they continue to remain quiet, will still not pick until the middle of the second round, at No. 49 overall, when the draft resumes at 7 p.m. Friday. They also have the 17th pick in the third round, which is No. 80 overall. Friday’s portion of the draft will include the second and third rounds before rounds four through seven are held on Saturday on the third and final day.

Again, though, I don’t think the Browns will stay put. It’s just not in Dorsey’s DNA. So, then, I fully expect them to make a deal at some point – likely sooner rather than later — to move up in the second round and make a splash. The Browns still could use an infusion of talent throughout the defense and along the offensive line.