Deshaun Watson Injury a Huge Win for the Browns: Cleveland Looking at Two Top 5 Draft Picks
By Jason McIntyre
As of today, the Browns have the 2nd pick and the 7th pick in the 2018 NFL draft.
The 7th pick is theirs courtesy of the trade with the Texans in the 2017 draft that netted Houston Deshaun Watson.
Now that Watson is hurt, and he’s been replaced by Tom Savage (behind him are the immortal Matt McGloin and TJ Yates), it sure feels like there won’t be many more wins for Houston.
The Browns? We know they won’t win many more games. One or two games maximum. Maybe they stun the bad Bengals on the road, or topple Brett Hundley in the Dog Pound, or … yeah, the Browns are going to have the 1st or 2nd pick in the draft.
But what if the Texans keep cratering? And they don’t win another game? The defense just got carved up by Jacoby Brissett. Here are the next QBs on deck for that bad Texans defense: Jared Goff, Drew Stanton, Joe Flacco, Marcus Mariota, Jimmy Garoppolo (?), Blake Bortles, Ben Roethlisberger and Jacoby Brissett (again).
It’s only November and too early to get excited, but the possibility of the Browns having the 1st and 3rd picks in the NFL draft might actually happen. The 49ers could win a few games with Garoppolo, maybe the Giants actually show up (ha!) …
Could Cleveland actually get Sam Darnold and Saquon Barkley? Dare to dream!
Here’s the recent history of NFL teams that drafted two players in the Top 10
2000: Redskins
2 Lavar Arrington
3 Chris Samuels
[Arrington made three Pro Bowls, but was out of the NFL at 28. Samuels was an All-Pro in 2001.]
2000: Ravens
5 Jamal Lewis
10 Travis Taylor
[Lewis helped the Ravens win a Super Bowl and also rushed for 2066 yards in 2003.]
1997: Seahawks
3 Shawn Springs
6 Walter Jones
[Jones is in the Hall of Fame. Springs had a very good career, but only made one Pro Bowl.]
1994: Colts
1 Marshall Faulk
5 Trev Alberts
[Faulk is in the Hall of Fame, though his best years came with the Rams.]
1992: Colts
1 Steve Emtman
2 Quentin Coryatt
[Unbelievably bad job. But this was a historically bad draft.]
1990: New England
8 Chris Singleton
10 Ray Agnew
[Amazingly bad job. Emmitt Smith went 17th.]