A lot of people in the media like to grade the NFL Draft right after it’s conducted.

Not me.

It’s about as useless as a screen door in a submarine.

Unless you can see into the future, which I can’t (I struggle seeing into the present moment), then you’re wasting your time.

The player you think will be a great fit and will go on to have a wonderful career, ends up being out of the league in less than two years. And the young man who appears to have no chance at all to just make the final roster, let alone contribute in any meaningful way, goes on to be a star.

Go figure.

Still not convinced? Yeah, I thought perhaps some of you weren’t.

So with all that, then, to prove my point, let’s go back and look at some Browns drafts and see how they might have been graded as soon as they were made:

*Example No. 1 – The Browns had the No. 1 overall pick and selected a quarterback whose team came within a half-game of winning the championship in a Power-5 conference. Sounds like a solid choice. We’ll give the Browns an A.

*Example No. 2 – The Browns wanted a quarterback, but the player they had targeted was taken with the pick just before their turn. So they used their choice on a running back. They got their plan-B quarterback in the second round. They then drafted offensive tackles in both the fifth and seventh rounds. Sounds like a ho-hum class. But we’ll give the Browns a C. After all, they needed a young, talented quarterback to bring along.

*Example No. 3 – The Browns drafted a two-way back in the first round, but there were hints that they were going to move him to another position. They took a running back from a tiny school in the eighth round. It hardly sounds like a winner. We’ll give the Browns a D.

*Example No. 4 – The Browns selected a cornerback in the first round, picked an outside linebacker in the third round from a basketball school and took a tight end from a run-oriented team in the sixth round with plans to move him to another position. Not impressive at all. We’ll be kind and give them a D-plus.

*Example No. 5 – The Browns had two first-round picks. With their first one, they picked a middle linebacker who had had injury problems in college, and said they would move him to another spot. And with their second one, they took a wide receiver from a school that almost never threw the ball. He, too, was going to be switched to another position. Really? This one seems like the how-to book for blowing two first-round picks. We’re giving the Browns an F-minus only because there’s no grade lower than that.

Now let’s see how those drafts really worked:

Example No. 1 – That was in 1954, when the Browns, really needing a young quarterback to groom as the heir apparent to Otto Graham and owning what was called the bonus selection, took Stanford’s Robert Garrett at No. 1 overall. There was just one problem. Browns head coach Paul Brown had no idea Garrett had a stuttering problem. How was he going to call the plays in the huddle and then bark out the signals at the line of scrimmage? It was like hiring a carpenter who couldn’t pound a nail straight. This was a disaster to be sure.

Example No. 2 – In 1957, Paul Brown wanted to draft Len Dawson, from Alliance (Ohio) High School, as Graham’s successor. The Pittsburgh Steelers, picking at No. 5, one spot ahead of Cleveland, beat the Browns to the punch and took Dawson, forcing the coach to select a running back instead in Jim Brown. Perhaps you have heard of him. In the second round, the Browns drafted a quarterback in Milt Plum who had two fine seasons before falling out of favor with Paul Brown and getting traded. In the fifth round, they took offensive tackle Henry Jordan, who, after doing little in Cleveland for two seasons, went on to have a Pro Football Hall of Fame career – at defensive tackle – for the Green Bay Packers. The other offensive tackle, in the seventh round, was moved to guard and took a while to blossom before turning into a Hall of Famer as well. His name was Gene Hickerson. It was an incredible draft.

Example No. 3 – That two-way back taken in the first round, in 1964, was Paul Warfield from Warren (Ohio) Harding High School and Ohio State. He was almost immediately moved to wide receiver, which launched his Hall of Fame career. At No. 110 overall came Leroy Kelly from Morgan State. He was relegated to returning kicks for his first two seasons, then took over as the starting running back when Jim Brown retired and made it into the Hall of Fame. So the Browns struck it rich again.

Example No. 4 – This one was in 1971. The Browns got cornerback Clarence Scott from Kansas State in the first round, outside linebacker Charlie Hall from Houston, which was a basketball power at the time with Elvin Hayes, in the third round and Illinois tight end Doug Dieken in the sixth round. Dieken was moved to left tackle and played for 14 seasons. Hall lasted 10 years. And Scott spent 14 seasons in Cleveland. They started – and starred – for a combined 38 years, and were among the most well-respected players the Browns have had. It was a great draft.

Example No. 5 – That “brittle” middle linebacker taken at No. 12 overall in 1978 was USC’s Clay Matthews, who, after getting hurt in training camp and missing a lot of time, became a star at outside linebacker for 16 seasons. He hardly ever missed a play, let alone a game. He was an iron man. He has gotten Hall of Fame consideration. In the Hall of Fame is Ozzie Newsome, who played in obscurity in Alabama’s wishbone offense. But, after taking him at No. 23, head coach Sam Rutigliano moved Newsome to tight end and the rest is history. It, too, was a tremendous draft.

So in each of these drafts, what people no doubt thought at first, was dead wrong.

That happens more often than not for all teams in the NFL. So let’s just sit back and see how this draft works out for the Browns for at least a couple years before we give it a grade.