No more holding our breath

By STEVE KING

It’s NFL Draft day, and while so many people think it has always been such a glorious event in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio because it gives the Browns yet another chance to start all over and get it right, I have found it to be anything but that.

For me and perhaps many of you as well, the draft has been a nightmarish experience in this fitful expansion era that began in 1999. I have held my breath, scared to death about what the Browns would do – how they would mess this up – because I had no confidence that the men in charge of making the decisions had any idea at all about what they were doing.

And in almost every case, I was – you all were – right, regrettably so.

But that had changed – 180 degrees the other way, in fact. Now I have full confidence that this current decision-making group of Browns General Manager Andrew Berry and his associates, working in concert with head coach Kevin Stefanski and his coaches, know exactly what they’re doing and will make a wise, well-thought-out decision when it comes time for the club to make its choice at No. 26 overall as the draft, being held in Cleveland for the first time and hopefully not the last, begins on Thursday night with the first round.

Will the Browns stay right where they’re at, six picks from the bottom of the round, and take Minnesota wide receiver Rashod Bateman, as I think they will do? Will they make a trade to move up and grab a player they’ve targeted, which I think has little chance of happening because the Browns so greatly covet their draft assets? Or will they trade down to acquire more draft picks, which I think has a decent shot of happening?

It’s hard to say, really, what will occur, but we’ll soon find out.

Of this much I am sure, though, and it is that we don’t need to hold our breath anymore.

That, in itself, is a great thing.