Grading the Cleveland Browns draft class for 2022
By Chad Porto
Round 4, Pick 124 – K Cade York (LSU)
Everyone keeps talking about how the Cinncinatti Bengals drafted a kicker and how they were in the Super Bowl, so clearly, that’s the answer, right? No, the Rams signed a guy who was heading into his third team, drafting a kicker this high or at all, was just a boneheaded move.
Historically, the Browns have taken 11 kickers, none named Phil Dawson or Lour Gorza. It kind of makes you wonder why they keep trying? They took Austin Seibert in 2019 and Zane Gonzales in 2017.
Neither are on the team, and neither lasted that long on the team. Will Cade York buck the trend? No reason to think so, after all, kickers are not really given time to get used to their settings anymore. If a kicker struggles for a few games or even a season, they’re likely gone.
As impressive as York’s leg is, the Browns stadium is less about leg strength and more about being knowledgeable about how wind affects the area. Dawson didn’t have the league’s strongest leg but he knew how wind affected the endzones, and how to account for that.
Unless York is used to kicking in blizzards, then his leg strength really doesn’t matter in Cleveland.
Grade: D-