The Cleveland Browns aren’t getting draft picks for their worst players

The Cleveland Browns aren’t likely to get draft picks for players who won’t make the team.

It always bemuses me when I see people suggesting that another team, with professionals who understand football, would make wild trades for players who aren’t that good. Hey, you know that guy who is so bad that he can’t stay on the field after already being drafted too high, to begin with? Think someone will give us a draft pick for them?

No. No, I do not. Here’s the thing, sports fans, while late-round picks won’t get you starters, you are far more likely to find a contributor in the sixth round than you are trading for a third-round bust. Sure, that bust might just need the right change of scenery.

He might also just be a bust, too. So can we all just agree that drafting players with no track record is a better option than trading for players who aren’t good enough to make the roster? No one is giving up a draft pick, seventh-round or otherwise, for Anthony Schwartz. It’s not going to happen.

Nor are you going to get one for Jordan Elliot, Tommy Togiai, Jacob Phillips, Perrion Winfreye, and just about a whole host of other players the Browns have drafted. Why? Because the league knows they’re not good, that’s why the Browns want to trade them.

No one’s going to a junkyard to pay premium prices for a car.

What Cleveland Browns’ players could realistically fetch the team a draft pick?

Right now, the team has a few guys who could be dealt with that would fetch the team a shiny draft pick. Jedrick Wills could probably get the team a fourth-rounder or worse. Donovan Peoples-Jones would be a fifth-rounder or worse. Grant Delpit may get you a sixth or seventh.

Greg Newsome, ironically enough, could probably get you a second, and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah probably a third. Martin Emerson could probably net you a third, or maybe a second if he has a strong second season.

That’s really it though. No one else has proven to be worth a second contract yet and if you know they’re not worthy of a second contract, you know they’re not worth a draft pick. Sure, some guys might be able to improve in 2023, but no one can deny that, from what we saw so far, that all of the other draft picks the team has gotten from 2020 and onward, have failed to produce at a level worth a second-contract.

So why would anyone give up a draft pick for them?