The law of averages may not be the driving force behind the Browns’ player-personnel strategy but it appears to play a prominent role in how the roster is assembled. A year ago, the Browns accumulated picks ahead of the 2016 NFL Draft, a strategy the front office continues to employ with the 2017 NFL Draft just weeks away.
The thinking? Former Major League Baseball general manager Paul DePodesta, who was hired by the Browns in January 2016, explains. “We’ve looked ourselves in the mirror and said, ‘Do we think that we are actually superhuman when it comes to picking players?’ And we pretty easily answered that with a resounding no,” DePodesta told TheMMQB.com’s Peter King last week. “So how are we going to increase our chances? We need to have more picks. So, if we have the same number of picks every year as everyone else, we don’t expect to do better than anyone else.”
If that sounds familiar, it should. As King pointed out, it’s the same philosophy Jimmy Johnson used a quarter-century ago when he was taking the Cowboys from laughingstock to Super Bowl champs.
From 1991-1993, the Cowboys had a league-high 23 picks in the top four rounds. From 2016-2018, the Browns have a league-high 22 picks in the top four rounds, though they could add to that number with subsequent moves.
Not only is DePodesta aware of the similarities, but Johnson told King that he had spoken to the Browns, though he wouldn’t go into specifics.
“There’s strength in numbers. I always wanted to have more picks in the middle rounds and at the end, because you can build a good team with the role players you get in the third, fourth and fifth rounds,” Johnson told King last week, adding this interesting nugget: “With the Browns now, with all those picks, really, you’re one free-agent class and one draft from being a contender.”
But Cleveland’s future isn’t all unicorns and rainbows; Johnson has a warning too: “But I’ll tell you, here’s the danger of having so many picks: You think, ‘We’ve got so many picks, let’s move up and take that guy with a little risk.’ You think you’ve got so many picks and you can afford to waste them on guys.”
The Browns’ best chance to go from afterthought to playoff team starts with finding a franchise quarterback. It’s been an elusive undertaking since the Browns returned to Cleveland in 1999. The club is apparently very high on Patriots backup Jimmy Garoppolo, but is currently unwilling to meet New England’s reportedly high demands -- despite having a cache of draft picks. Whether that changes in the coming days and weeks will be up to DePodesta and the Browns’ front office.