Drama at top of draft to continue … Mike Silver of NFL.com is reporting that Cleveland V.P. of Football Operations Sashi Brown told him earlier today that the Browns know who they’ll be taking with the #1 pick in just 26 hours and that in fact they’ve known for at least a couple of weeks. However, Brown said that even though the Browns know who they’ll be selecting they still plan to use their full time allotment to make the pick. Maybe the most interesting aspect of Silver’s reporting is that Brown indicated that only a half dozen or so people are in on who the Browns will be taking and that it isn’t clear that head coach Hue Jackson is one of them! The Browns are believed to have settled on DE Myles Garrett as the top pick, but the Browns had been leaving open the possibility of taking QB Mitch Trubisky at that point. Silver, who reported yesterday that the Browns have had serious discussions with 3 of the 7 teams picking right after them about a possible trade up from #12, upped that number to 4 earlier today and is currently saying its 5. For the record, the 7 teams who follow the Browns in the early selection order are: 2. San Francisco; 3. Chicago; 4. Jacksonville; 5. Tennessee; 6. New York Jets; 7. LA Chargers; and 8. Carolina and it would be interesting to know which are the two Cleveland hasn’t called. Meanwhile, San Francisco is still sending out signals that the 49ers are still considering taking a QB with the second pick overall. Today, 49ers’ CEO Jeb York was quoted as saying you can’t win in the NFL without an elite QB, something that is currently in short supply in San Francisco these days. What isn’t clear, though, is whether the 49ers are indeed serious about taking a QB at #2 – presumably either Trubisky or Deshaun Watson – or whether its a smoke screen to entice the Browns to moving up as high as the second pick to ensure getting Trubisky. Stay tuned!
