With no first-round pick, Cleveland Browns GM Andrew Berry seeks his next JOK in NFL Draft

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Browns no longer have a first-round pick in this month's NFL Draft, but they still expect to select a player a little later who will become a significant contributor for them.

Instead of going on the clock at 13th overall the night of April 28, the Browns and General Manager Andrew Berry aren't scheduled to pick until the second round (44th overall) on April 29.

That's because they shipped six picks, including a first-round choice in each of the next three drafts, to the Houston Texans in the controversial March 18 trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Browns coach Kevin Stefanski recently compared first-round picks to gold, illustrating the high price the franchise was willing to pay for Watson, despite the three-time Pro Bowl selection facing 22 ongoing civil lawsuits from women accusing him of sexual misconduct or sexual assault during massage appointments.

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In the aftermath of the Watson deal, the Browns are left hoping Berry flourishes in the second round again. Last year, he traded up to draft Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah at No. 52 overall, and now the Browns consider the linebacker from the University of Notre Dame one of their top young players.

“From my study of this, I think there’s going to be good players available. I really do,” Stefanski said Monday during the NFL owners meetings at The Breakers Palm Beach resort. “I think there will be a good player for us there in the second round. At what position, I’m not sure at this point. But I’m pretty confident that Andrew and his staff will find a guy that can help us.”

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Lacking a first-round pick won't change the Browns' draft preparation much, Berry said, because they must be ready for the unexpected.

“We can have an educated guess on some of the players [who] won't be available to us by 44 but, by the same token, we want to make sure that we complete the work on all the prospects who are on our front board,” Berry said Tuesday at the owners meetings. “A perfect example of that is JOK.

“We didn't necessarily expect him to be there in 52, and so you do have situations like that where you don't all the sudden abort the work that you're going to do on a player just because you think he may not be there. There are surprises every year. So our prep process will remain the same, and we'll kind of zero in and finalize that over the course of the next month.”

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On the other hand, Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta pointed out a difference.

DePodesta said the Browns typically run through many mock draft exercises to prepare for the real thing, but those simulations probably won't be as meaningful without a first-round choice to consider.

“Once you get past the first 30 or 40 picks, those exercises lose a lot of integrity because the board can go in so many different directions,” DePodesta said Tuesday during the owners meetings. “You have to do thousands of them for it to be worthwhile. Not picking until 44, those [mocks] won't be as valuable to us, but other than that, everything is the same. Even in a normal draft, it's not as though we're just preparing for our first-round pick. We're preparing for three days, so that doesn't change.”

That won't stop draft analysts from giving it their best shot.

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ESPN's Todd McShay lists defensive tackles and ends who would make sense for Browns in second round

Right now, defensive line and wide receiver are still the Browns' most glaring needs, and ESPN's Todd McShay outlined some potential fits he believes could be available for Berry at No. 44.

McShay mentioned Houston's Logan Hall, Connecticut's Travis Jones and Alabama's Phidarian Mathis as options at defensive tackle.

“Logan Hall would be intriguing there,” McShay said Thursday during a conference call. “He's kind of a tweener five-technique who can play on the edge. You can play him at three-technique. He can provide some versatility.

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“If you're looking for a pure defensive tackle, Travis Jones is a physical freak coming out of Connecticut. You just look at what he was able to do at the Senior Bowl and then combine that with the workout numbers that he had, I think he's got a chance to be a really good player.”

An edge rusher McShay singled out as a logical second-round target is Oklahoma's Nik Bonitto.

“You just need another guy on the opposite side [of Browns All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett] to get pass-rush pressure,” McShay said. “I think Bonitto's going to come in with the explosive workout numbers he had and the unbelievable production he's had the last couple of years at Oklahoma, I think he's going to be at least as a rookie a designated pass rusher in sub packages, and I think he's going to put up some really good pressure numbers and sack numbers as a rookie.”

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As for the receivers, McShay listed Western Michigan's Skyy Moore, North Dakota State's Christian Watson, Georgia's George Pickens and Alabama's John Metchie III as candidates to be picked 44th overall.

McShay raved about Moore and Christian Watson.

“[Moore] is silky smooth,” McShay said. “He's the kind of guy in a closet you'd have a hard time wrapping him up and bringing him down. He is so good in tight spaces. Tracks the deep ball well. He ran really well at the combine. I know he's a little bit undersized, but the way he plays he's so smooth. He's 5-9½, 195. He ran a 4.41 in his 40-yard dash. I think he's got a chance to be in that range around 44.”

“[Christian Watson] was like 6, 7 yards behind defensive backs on deep balls. It was like over and over again on tape. But I wondered leading up to the Senior Bowl how is he as a route runner. He just didn't have to [be a precise route runner in college] because he was running by guys at that level.

“[He faced Auburn's] Roger McCreary and some of those really top-end corners that are going to be second, third-round draft picks, and he was working them at the top of his stem and getting out of breaks. I like Christian Watson a lot. I think he's going to be in that range and would be a really good fit.”

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What draft picks do the Browns have?

After the blockbuster move for Watson, the Browns have the following seven selections in the April 28-30 NFL Draft:

Second round, 44th overall

Third round, 78th overall

Third round, 99th overall

Fourth round, 118th overall

Sixth round, 202nd overall from Dallas

Seventh round, 223rd overall from Detroit

Seventh round, 246th overall from Buffalo

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: ESPN's Todd McShay lists potential Browns second-round picks