The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that at least four teams, including the Eagles and Rams, have inquired about the Browns’ fourth overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. Depending on which team trades up, the Browns might be able to get a steal at the top of the draft if there are multiple players they are okay picking.
I’m not exactly sure why the Browns would want to trade down here, or why a team like the Rams would want to trade up, but if they do, both the Rams and Eagles have great ammo to move up.
So where would such a trade leave the Browns? If Cleveland trades down with St.Louis, their target list could very well stay the same—just take the best available between Justin Blackmon, Trent Richardson, Morris Claiborne, or Ryan Tannehill. It’s likely that St. Louis would want one of the first three names on that list, but I think the Eagles’ trading up would be much more pointed.
If Philadelphia makes a move into the top five, I think they would be targeting Tannehill as a quarterback of the future. It would be a move that would likely cost the Eagles a lot, and a move their fans probably wouldn’t like.
If the Browns traded down to the 15th pick, I’d be interested to see what they were planning to do. With all of their extra picks acquired from trades, they could probably use some to move up and acquire a third first round pick. Suppose they trade down to 15 overall and are able to select Michael Floyd, the wide receiver from Notre Dame. They could take Doug Martin with the pick they acquired from Atlanta and maybe trade back into the first round for Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden.
The options are pretty endless, but the Browns already have 13 picks in this year’s draft, so acquiring more would give them serious ammunition to trade up and get pretty much whoever they want.
With the new CBA cap rules on draft picks, this is a very interesting scenario to keep an eye on.
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