Just when I thought Browns General Manager Andrew Berry couldn’t do anything more cowardly in the NFL Draft than some of the other crazy things he’s done in his tenure with the club, he did it.

He passed on Ohio State safety Caleb Downs not just once but twice during the first round in Pittsburgh on Thursday night.

Berry could’ve stayed at No. 6 overall and taken Downs, but he traded with Kansas City to get out of that. And with the No. 9 overall pick he got from the Chiefs, he could’ve taken Downs again, and yet he passed on him again and took the best of a mediocre bunch of offensive tackles in Spencer Fano.

The Browns are where they’re at because, too many times during the years, they have used the NFL draft to see if they could do what people do at the dollar store and try to get bargains in every way, shape and form. I don’t want to go to the dollar store. I want the Browns to have their GM put on his big-boy pants and take a player who will help them win games. Downs would help the Browns win games, and as it stands now, it’ll be the Dallas Cowboys he will help with games because they are the team that picked him a little bit after the Browns took Fano.

You win with great players, not with a bunch of decent ones. The Browns need a talent influx. They don’t have a leader on their defense, and they could’ve had that in Downs. He’s the greatest defensive back Ohio State has ever produced, but the Browns passed on him, twice. I can’t believe I said that. I can’t believe Berry did that. It makes me sick to my stomach. I was begging for him to stay at 6 and take Downs, and when he traded back to 9 and he was still there, I begged him again to take Downs. But Berry always tries to be the smartest guy in the room by doing something that nobody else would’ve done. Well, Mr. Genius, I think you outsmarted yourself twice as badly this time.

Steve King