Cleveland Browns: Trading Up Would Be A Bad Idea

If the Cleveland Browns are considering trading for the first overall pick, then they need to consider removing that as an option.

Many options will be available for the Cleveland Browns when they select second overall in the 2016 NFL Draft. Multiple players would be a fit for the team and they will have close to 100% of the players they are considering at their disposal. That is why trading up one spot does not make sense and is a bad idea.

The Tennessee Titans have the first overall pick, as well as a franchise quarterback in Marcus Mariota. Both Tennessee and Cleveland will obviously have similar targets, but with Cleveland’s need to acquire a quarterback, a signal-caller is destined to be headed to northeast Ohio.

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Should Cleveland not trade up, they run the risk of another team make a deal with the Titans to take a quarterback. If that happened, since only player would have been selected, again there will still be multiple options at the top of the draft board the Cleveland Browns would love to have. Whether that be California’s Jared Goff or North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz, Cleveland is going to be in a win-win situation regardless.

If Cleveland for whatever reason decided to trade up during the 2016 NFL Draft, that would be similar to the trade with the Minnesota Vikings during the 2012 NFL Draft.

There were rumors that the Vikings were going to select Alabama running back Trent Richardson, although that was a bluff because they already had Adrian Peterson. Cleveland was in need of a running back so they traded multiple draft picks, including their fourth overall pick to move up one spot to select Richardson.

I am still not sure why exactly they made such a deal when there were other options at running back they could have selected, while selecting a great player fourth overall. With draft picks being ever so critical to a team’s success, it is hard to see the Cleveland Browns making such a trade again.

There are many holes and opportunities where the Browns can upgrade and improve their roster. Making such a trade does not do any favors for a rebuilding Cleveland Browns organization.

Cleveland is going to be rebuilding through the draft even more with their current regime. Any such trade during the draft must lead to a selection of a player whose play can translate successfully to the NFL, rather than a player chosen based off of potential.

Even though the Cleveland Browns should not trade their second pick to move up in the draft order, that does mean they should not trade at all in the first round. There are two scenarios where a trade could be beneficial and smart. The first is possibly trading back, but only if the team can get a substantial offer they cannot refuse.

The other scenario is if a very talented player is slipping for whatever reason.

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He could be a very good value and trading their 32nd overall pick with another draft selection may be worth the investment.

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