The Browns are getting rave reviews for their performance in the NFL Draft over the weekend.

That includes some strong praise from The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, a noted draft analyst who rated the Browns’ efforts as No. 1 in the league. When’s the last time when the Browns were on top of the league with anything good, especially with something as important in the draft?

I hope and pray he’s right. I hope and pray that the other draft experts are right as well.

Indeed, I want — with all my heart, I really do — to see the Browns excel and win games and championships. That would be wonderful. This expansion era has been miserable.

In my opinion, I also think the Browns did a lot of good things in the draft. There’s absolutely no question about that.

But at the same time, I can’t back off the fact I have problems with the Browns’ first two picks, both in Round 1. It’s not that that I dislike offensive tackle Spencer Fano. He might well have been the best o-linemen overall in the draft, and the Browns desperately needed linemen, especially tackles. It’s just that I like Ohio State safety Caleb Downs better — a lot better, actually. I think he was lthe best defensive player in the draft. No matter its needs — and the Browns needed a safety, too, as evidence by the fact they took one later in Toledo’s Emmanuel McNeil-Warren — a team can’t afford to pass on the best defensive prospect available. It just can’t. I would have sprinted — OK, walked briskly — to turn in the card on Downs.

His intelligence is off the charts. It’s incredible. Just as a quarterback runs the offense, the safety — a quarterback as well — runs the defense.

Jack Tatum is the best cornerback the Buckeyes have ever had. Downs is the best safety. Think about that for a minute.

Now, as for Texas A&M wide receiver KC Concepcion, the latter first-round pick, he’s quick and fast, but he has trouble holding onto the ball. That is a really big deal. Nothing else matters for a wideout — or a returner, which he also is — unless he catches and secures the ball.

The best pass catchers in Browns history — from Lavelli and Speedie and Renfro, to Collins and Warfield, to Rucker and Logan and Newsome, to Slaughter and Langhorne and Brennan — could all do that so very well. Hopefully, Concepcion can improve on that, but it will not be easy and it will take a lot of hard work.

Next time, we’ll look at a pivotal moment in Browns history that involved a safety.

Steve King