The Browns' top two picks, Cedric Tillman (right) and Siaki Ika, arrived at team headquarters on Saturday afternoon. (TheLandOnDemand)
#HeyTony: How would you grade the Browns’ draft?
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Hey Tony: What grade do you give the Browns draft? Do you think we crushed it with value picks as Dane Brugler has said?
-- Andy, New Albany, OH
Hey Andy: Without a first- and second-round pick, I’d grade the Browns’ draft a solid B. It seemed to me they were best served by not hopping around and trading back and forth. Just standing pat and letting the draft come to them, I thought, produced a better result. There was not a single pick where I thought, “What the heck are they thinking?”
Hey Tony: Do you think the Browns were targeting Jalin Hyatt before the Giants moved ahead of them to grab him?
-- Adam, Valley City, OH
Hey Adam: I don’t. The Giants gave up a fourth-round pick to the Rams to move up 16 spots and take Hyatt. You might assume the Giants feared the Browns would grab Hyatt and that’s why they chose to move up to No. 73. If so, the Giants were wrong. The Browns wanted Cedric Tillman, Hyatt’s teammate at Tennessee, because of his size and physicality. Tillman was the biggest of the top 20 receivers in the draft and also had a record of sure-handedness. While faster, Hyatt measured 6-0 and 176 pounds at the combine – similar size to Elijah Moore and Marquise Goodwin, whom the Browns added before the draft. The Browns probably were ecstatic the Giants took Hyatt and not Tillman. My question is what would the Browns have done if the Giants had taken Tillman? I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have taken Hyatt.
Hey Tony: I heard AB only had 125 draftable players but it appears the player taken by Baltimore may have been a player we should have considered Could have redshirted for a year and could have been valuable for the future. Should we have taken him?
-- Sam, Lorain, OH
Hey Sam: Naw. Andrew Vorhees, a guard from USC, is the player the Ravens selected with the seventh-round pick acquired from the Browns. Vorhees suffered a torn ACL at the NFL combine and won’t be available until 2024. At that point, he will be 25. The Browns’ depth on the offensive line is better than the Ravens’. Plus, it’s not as if Vorhees was considered a highly touted prospect before his injury. He was projected to go in the sixth round.
Hey Tony: With the exit of Kareem Hunt, do you see an increased role for Nick Chubb catching passes in space? Swings, screens, and Texas routes could be scary with him!
-- Mike, Byron, NY
Hey Mike: Possibly. But don’t be surprised to see 2022 fifth-round pick Jerome Ford slip seamlessly into Hunt’s third-down running back role. His receiving ability and yards-after-catch potential are big reasons why the Browns like Ford. It doesn’t mean they won’t throw to Chubb, but I don’t envision a perceptible increase in his pass targets.
Hey Tony: Given all the Browns’ needs, would you have committed a draft pick to a QB like the Browns did?
-- AJ, Avon, OH
Hey AJ: Yes. I think the remainder of the Browns’ needs are better filled by veteran pickups rather than lower-round draft picks. I totally expected the Browns to draft a quarterback. I singled out Dorian Thompson-Robinson as the potential pick. Because Josh Dobbs is signed for only one year and likely will move on next year, the Browns have to identify a future backup QB. Thompson-Robinson will compete against Kellen Mond this summer for the No. 3 role this year and the leg up on replacing Dobbs in 2024. We haven’t seen Mond play in a game, so I wouldn’t just hand the job to Thompson-Robinson.
Hey Tony: What’s going on with linebacker? It was not addressed in the draft. Is linebacker the weakest position group for the Browns?
-- Paul, Rocky River, OH
Hey Paul: The Browns are not alone in devaluing the linebacker position. Several teams have trended to replacing a third linebacker with a third safety in special defensive alignments to increase the unit’s overall speed in these pass-happy times. It’s not as if Berry has ignored the positioned, either. In Berry’s four drafts, he took Jacob Phillips in the third round in 2020, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah in the second round in 2021 and Tony Fields in the fifth round in 2021. He also signed or re-signed three linebackers in free agency this year. Despite those efforts, however, yes, I would say it is the weakest position group on the roster.
Hey Tony: I agree that Perrion Winfrey is on thin ice. However, it doesn’t seem like an imminent decision needs to be made (without a conviction)? Any significant risk to bringing him to training camp as a part of the 90-man roster and deciding then?
-- Matt, Columbus, OH
Hey Matt: At this point, you’re right. They may as well just bring him to camp. If the Browns wanted to make a statement that certain behavior will not be tolerated they would have done something by now.
Hey Tony: Have the Browns tried anything to get Jed (Wills) to stop standing around when his pass blocking assignment beats him and begins chasing the QB? I can accept him getting beat, but to just stop and stare the way he does when this happens is frustrating.
-- Mike, Rochester, NY
Hey Mike: I think all the offensive linemen have to learn to adjust to Deshaun Watson’s style of moving out of the pocket to try to create plays. Wills probably was the worst offender of giving up on his assignment, but I don’t think he was alone.
