With the quarterback position settled, fans of the Cleveland Browns are not left to wonder when the revolving door that is the kicker position will get fixed.
And with the Bengals catapulting into the Super Bowl behind rookie Evan McPherson, a kicker they selected in the fifth round of last year’s draft, there’s a sect of us who wouldn’t mind seeing the Browns using a later-round pick to finally solidify the position.
LSU’s Cade York is one of the prime kicking prospects coming out of college this season and he’s on the Browns radar.
The franchise sent a “key member of the organization to the school to spend time with him,” according to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot (subscription required). The scribe added that she could see the Browns taking him in the third or fourth round.
Interesting verbiage on behalf of Cabot, because “spending time with” has to mean more than watching a guy kick. It’s personality. You’d like to have a guy with confidence and a short memory. Remember, before McPherson nailed the game winning kick in the AFC title game, he was telling Joe Burrow how cool it was that their team was about to go to the Super Bowl.
I’d be stunned if the Browns use one of their two third rounders on York. They have the 78th and 99th picks in the round. It just seems anti-analytics to use such a high pick. That said, since they do have that selection a 99, which is a compensatory selection, I could support it.
Browns fans know all too well how an unreliable kicker can dictate the course of a game, so if they can get a dependable player at the position, they need to do it.
For what it’s worth, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler had the Browns drafting Oklahoma’s Gabe Brkic in the sixth round in his latest mock. Brugler is one of the best in the crazy world of mocks, so you’ve got to believe this finding a kicker thing is real.