The Cleveland Browns walked away with 14 draft picks in 2016 in large part to the trade with the Philadelphia Eagles. Vice President of football operations Sashi Brown was adamant he thought the team made the right decision to trade down from the 2nd selection.
“We were pleased with it,” Browns said Saturday during the team’s Fan Fest, per Mary Kay Cabot of The Plain Dealer. “I was a little surprised we got as much as we did, but some hard negotiating and (vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry) was a big help in that, keeping me at bay and not pulling the trigger too soon.
Said Brown: “We were able to come away with what should be the foundation of the championship team that we’re going to build.”
Ultimately the team will regret not pulling the trigger on Carson Wentz if in fact he turns out to be a franchise caliber quarterback. In the end only time will tell if the Browns made the right call moving down.
“You always have that second-guessing in the back of your mind that if the player that we would’ve selected there at two pans out. You’re going to be thinking about it for a long time, certainly,” Brown said.
Cleveland’s first round pick ended up being Baylor’s Corey Coleman. The Browns made it clear they were going to build around RG3 selecting 5 receivers in the 2016 NFL Draft. Obviously the Browns are banking on some of those guys being misses and later commenting on their draft strategy.
“When we really sat down and talked with Philly, (and understood) the batch of picks they were wanting to put together, where we sit as a roster today, this was the right decision for us,” Brown said. “We felt like we could still get the No. 1 wide receiver on our board (in Corey Coleman), which was coveted by us certainly in the building to support Robert (Griffin III) and what we want to do on offense and the running game that will be the engine of what we want to do on (offense).
“We were able to position ourselves for today to address the roster,” Brown said, “but also moving forward in the future to have more flexibility.”
