Cleveland Browns’ OT Jedrick Wills is not a disappointment for one shocking reason

The Cleveland Browns drafting of Jedrick Wills was a mistake but it could’ve been worse.

The Cleveland Browns made the mistake of drafting Jedrick Wills 10th overall in the 2020 NFL Draft. Wills, who has been the team’s starting left tackle ever since isn’t a “bad” player. His career will likely be long, 10+ years assuming he avoids injury. He’ll likely be able to play into his mid-30s, and may even see some success in the playoffs.

That said, the right pick was Tristan Wirfs, who went three spots later and is already a two-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro player. Clearly, the Browns’ missed. They not only missed, but they stretched. While value is a cute term for people to use in the draft, it’s utter nonsense. Someone’s pre-draft evaluation isn’t the same as another, so one person’s opinion on a pick having “value” isn’t going to be the same as another.

That’s not the case for a player entering his fourth year in the league. We can safely say that the Browns missed hard on Wills, and didn’t get value for the pick. Ezra Cleveland, a tackle turned guard who went in the 2nd round of the same draft, has outpaced Wills according to PFF.

In each of the last three seasons, Cleveland has posted better PFF scores than Wills. Cleveland posted a 66.2 score in 2020, compared to Wills’ 61.5. The same thing in 2021, when it was 68.1 score to 66.1, and in 2022 it was still Cleveland up on Wills, with a 73.5 score to Wills, 62.9.

Yes, Cleveland’s not as good as a pass-blocker according to PFF, but he blows Wills out of the water with run-blocking. So when your Top 10 pick is being outpaced by a late-second-rounder, clearly Wills wasn’t worth a first-round pick then and isn’t worth one now.

Yet, somehow, Wills isn’t a bust for one key reason. He outlasted 63.5% of the other first-rounders, as he got his fifth-year option extended. He’s among the 12 players to actually get his fifth-year option, while 20 players from the first round had theirs declined. With staggering numbers like that, there can only be one of two takeaways.

Either Wills is a good player, or Browns GM Andrew Berry refuses to accept defeat on any of his draft picks. Since the 5th year option is fully guaranteed, that means the Browns will be paying Wills just shy of $15 million. Nearly double of what he made over the first four years of his contract combined.

Is he worth it? No, but it does show you how bad the 2020 NFL Draft class was.

Jedrick Wills getting his fifth year-option from the Cleveland Browns is not the most shocking thing

The Cleveland Browns would’ve been wise to just let Wills go to free agency after 2023 and re-sign him to a cheaper deal but the fact that they picked up a nearly $15 million note on a sub-par left tackle tells us one thing; the rest of the picks from that year must truly be bad.

Only Joe Burrow, Andrew Thomas, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Derrick Brown, Tristan Wirfs, Jerry Jeudy, A.J. Terrell, CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, and Brandon Aiyuk had their fifth-year options picked up beside Wills. The Packers made a sweet-heart deal with Jordan Love that will keep him in Green Bay for the 2024 NFL season, but it’s not it was by extending his current deal, not by picking up his fifth-year option.

So is Wills a first-rounder? By value, no, there are second, third, and fourth-rounders who have out-performed him. Does he have a first-round value by default? Yes, the Browns have committed to him for the next two seasons, and have decided to make him a vocal point of the offensive line, even though he’s the weakest link on the offensive line.

If Wills doesn’t improve, that means the Browns will be paying a lot of money for someone who is performing worse than former Browns left tackle, Greg Robinson.