No draft talk here

By STEVE KING

It’s good – but also bad – when your team has the No. 1 overall selection in the NFL Draft.

It’s good to have it because it gives you the pick of the litter, so to speak, and the chance to add a great player if not a franchise one.

It is with that pick last year that the Browns tabbed the guy they think – and everybody else seems to think – will be their franchise quarterback for years to come in Baker Mayfield.

But at the same time, it’s bad because to earn that pick, your team had to be the worst in the league the previous season.

Time and time again in this nightmarish expansion era, the Browns had the No. 1 pick – or at least one of the top choices – and totally blew it. So they were bad and still did not take the advantage of it to improve themselves. This vicious cycle made it appear as if we had all been cast into the iconic comedy movie, “Groundhog Day.”

That usually led to another terrible season, which, in turn, led to another No. 1 pick, which, in turn led to all that seemingly endless talk – and angst – about who, usually what quarterback, to take.

It became nauseating, to say the least.

One of the great by-products of the Browns doing so much better last season and ending up with “only” the No. 17 overall pick, which they in turn traded to the New York Giants to get wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., is that we don’t have to listen to – or, more specifically, be involved in and a part, THE part, of — all that discussion and speculation this year. Unless they make a trade, which is entirely possible, the Browns won’t even be picking the first night of the draft in about two weeks on April 25. They have the No. 49 overall selection, which is in the middle of the second round, then they won’t pick again until the middle of the third round, at No. 80.

It’s obviously impossible to say who will still be on the board when their turn comes up in those two rounds, or, more importantly, who the Browns will pick.

And it’s a good feeling. Let the teams at the top of the draft worry about stuff like that.