Browns Digest

4 Burning Browns Questions, Including: Which Draft Pick Will Make The Biggest Impact In 2024?

The Browns used draft weekend to bolster their depth at a number of positions, now plenty of questions loom for how they'll integrate the newest members of the team.

Spencer German

Oct 7, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. (51)
Oct 7, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. (51) / Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

After an eventful draft weekend the Browns wound up staying put with all of the picks they entered the NFL Draft and came away with six new players.

This was the third and final year of Cleveland not having a first-round pick as part of the Deshaun Watson trade. General manager Andrew Berry tried to make the most of the resources he did have to bolster the team's depth at a number of positions.

With the NFL Draft in the rearview mirror, here is a draft centric 4 Burning Browns Questions:

Which draft pick has the best chance of making an immediate impact in 2024?

The easy answer is Michael Hall Jr., not just because he was the highest of the picks, but also because of the nature of the situation he's stepping into. Jim Schwartz loves to rotate his defensive lineman so Hall is likely to see some playing time next year maybe more than any of the other draftees.

Third-round pick Zak Zinter is also an easier answer cause there's a good chance he ends up being one injury away from seeing the field. I'll give you a less obvious one though: LB Nathanial Watson. Not only could Watson wind up finding himself in the linebacker rotation periodically but I think he's in line to be a consistent special teams guy. He played a ton of special teams at Mississippi State and I'm already envisioning him keeping that going in his rookie season with Cleveland.

Berry followed his annual trend of drafting a wide receiver in Louisville product Jamari Thrash. How does he impact the wide receiver depth chart?

I'm guessing there are a lot of fans wondering how Thrash fits into the Browns wide receiver hierarchy. The top three guys are clear and obvious: Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy and Elijah Moore remain unthreatened. The four-seven spots will be interesting to watch throughout the spring and summer.

The Browns have never opened the season with seven wide receivers on the roster. Assuming they keep six, the combination of Cedric Tillmans, David Bell, Michael Woods II and Thrash (all of whom are Berry draft picks) will duke it out for the other three spots. One way Thrash can help his cause is by proving he can play special teams, which isn't something he did a lot of in college. Right now I'd lean toward Thrash making the team, with maybe David Bell as the odd man out? But time will tell.

The Browns didn't address the tight end position in the draft, is that still something they could look to do before the start of the season?

Berry actually addressed this in his post-draft press conference:

"The first game isn’t until Labor Day weekend or after Labor Day weekend. So we’ve got a long way to go. We can probably maybe catch our breath for a day. But I think we talked about before the Draft, you know, Za’Darius (Smith), we traded for on a Friday night in the middle of May. Shelby (Harris), we signed what, early August? And we traded for Pierre (Strong Jr.) and Dustin (Hopkins), you know, at the end of camp. So there’s still work to do in the roster and that’s not just limited to the tight end room, but, you know, that’s what the next couple months are for.”

I think that pretty much sums it up. I was surprised they didn't address the position in the draft but it seems that based on how the board fell, the value wasn't there for them. I'd be stunned if the Browns didn't add another tight end at some point, especially after losing Harrison Bryant in free agency. Maybe a guy like Irv Smith Jr., who is currently on the Bengals 90-man roster, could come into play later this summer, especially since they drafted Erick All out of Iowa. Smith Jr. played under Stefanski in Minnesota in 2019.

This is the first draft Berry didn't make any trades up and down the board, does that represent a philosophy change from him?

I wouldn't say that. Berry mentioned in that same press conference after the draft that he tried to swing some trades particularly involving those two seventh rounders but nothing wound up making sense. I think we can always count on Berry being aggressive on draft weekend and next year he has a first rounder back at his disposal, so we'll see if he has anything up his sleeve with that.

Published
Spencer German

SPENCER GERMAN

Spencer German is a contributor to the Northeast Ohio cluster of sites, including Cavs Insider, Cleveland Baseball Insider and most notably Browns Digest. He also works as a fill-in host on Cleveland Sports Radio, 92.3 The Fan, one of the Browns radio affiliate stations in Cleveland. Despite being a Cleveland transplant, Spencer has enjoyed making Northeast Ohio home ever since he attended college locally at John Carroll University, where he graduated in 2013.