Grading the Browns' Draft

These grades are weighted by round.  You expect more from a first round pick than you do from a sixth round pick:

Both the first round picks were F-minusses.  This was just atrocious.

And they traded UP for Trent Richardson!

What?  You thought I was grading this draft?  Do I look like an egomaniacal jackass (oh yeah you can't see me nevermind).

In 2012, I was pretty clueless.  I thought Tannehill was a much better prospect than Weeden, but was on-board with the Trent Richardson pick.  But as time passed, I got smarter and smarter, until today I feel smart enough to grade that draft.

Obviously, TRich was a huge bust, and kudos to Farmer for salvaging a first round pick out of him (and ignoring all the caterwalling at the time).

Both these picks are F-minuses--nay, they were G's.

In the second round, 37th overall, they took Mitchell Schwartze.  Got to give this one a C.  Guards and right tackles slide in drafts, and you can get really good ones in the second or third round.

Schwartze, as I've said, is above average, but nothing special.  If you are a kneejerk Schwartze-basher, you think C is generous.  Thank God I'm doing the grading.

In the third round it was John Hughes.  Got to give that one a C-minus.  Hughes is a solid DT and a run-stopper, but not well-suited to a 3-4 defense.  Better players were available, and I do still think Hughes would have fallen to them in the fourth.

I'll upgrade that to a C, however, since he is still with the team, and just got extended.

In the 4th round, it was Travis Benjamin.  This was a B.  Remember, it's the fourth round?  Benjamin has a crappy season as a returner last year, but has developed into a pretty good wide reciever, and prior to that was a really good returner.

Unfortunately for him, Hawk and an undrafted guy are better than him, and he's probably hitting the dusty trail.  But he'll get scooped up, and he'll play football somewhere.

Then it was linebacker James Micheal-Johnson.  At that point in the fourth round, inside linebacker is one of those positions: You can find good ones there.

From what I read in Wikepedia, James is out of the NFL.  D.

In the fifth, it was guard/tackle Ryan Miller.  That's a C, because Miller is still in the NFL (lately with the Chargers), and this is the low fifth round.

6th round linebacker Emmanuel Acho is a pretty good player and a starter, so that one has to be an A down this low.

Billy Winn in the 6th is an A-plus.

In the 7th, it was DB Trevin Wade. I don't know about his current status, but the latest Wikepedia entry had him being waived by the Saints at the end of the 2014 season.  B (it's the seventh round, for cryin out loud!)

Fullback Brad Smelley is with the Rams.  Another B.  Any seventh rounder who sticks around the NFL this long was a good pick.

Because of the horror of the first round, the overall grade for this draft has to be a D-plus.  

Of course, except for Winn, Hughes, Benjamin, and Schwartze, this has nothing whatsoever to do with the current regime, and it's idiotic to use it as ammo to bash Ray Farmer with.

My grade for this year's draft is pending.  I expect to have it ready in 2018.