College Football

Ohio State Football: The Browns Passed on These Buckeyes?

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:24 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

Fansided, Charlie Lockhart/FanSided via Scarlet and Game

The Browns could improve if they scouted Ohio State players.

The Cleveland Browns targeted certain needs in the 2016 NFL draft so they traded out of the No. 2 pick. Whether they traded out of the spot or not, they could have filled at least two of their needs with Ohio State players but chose not to. I’ll bet they wish they had now.

First a look at the first four picks by the Browns:

15 Corey Coleman         WR     Baylor        

32 Emmanuel Ogbah    DE      Oklahoma State

65 Carl Nassib                 DE      Penn State

76 Shon Coleman           OT      Auburn         

First, if the Browns wouldn’t have traded down they could have chosen Joey Bosa with the second pick and still picked up Nassib. Bosa is terrorizing offenses and has 9.5 sacks in 11 games and 2 of them came against the Browns. After his second sack at Cleveland, his O-H-I-O let everyone know he wouldn’t have minded playing his professional football in the state.

If it wasn’t imperative to draft a defensive end that high, the Browns could have gone with another Buckeye who is doing pretty well. Ezekiel Elliott is tearing up opposing defenses on his way to the NFL Rookie of the Year Award.

Then, at number 32 Cleveland could have chosen Michael Thomas whether or not they traded down from the No. 2 pick. The New Orleans Saints rookie has 82 receptions for 981 yards and 8 touchdowns so far this season. Two of Cleveland’s needs covered without moving down in the draft.

Possibly the Browns needed as many draft picks as they could accumulate because of the number of holes they had to fill. They still could have filled a couple of them with Buckeyes.

Needing an offensive tackle, Cleveland could drafted Taylor Decker at No. 15, one spot before he was taken by the Detroit Lions. Decker has had a nice season and made Mel Kiper’s Rookie Big Board at No. 19. Here is what Kiper had to say about the offensive tackle as reported by Ohio State.247Sports:

Possibly with Decker as the bookend tackle to All-Pro Joe Thomas, it wouldn’t be a revolving door at the quarterback situation with the Browns. Somebody may stay healthy enough to throw the ball to Michael Thomas and the other receivers.

The new general manager for the Cleveland Browns is using analytics in an attempt to get the Browns on a winning track. It may be a better idea to go back 70 years and explore the possibilities of going “old school” instead.

More from Scarlet and Game

Coach Paul Brown built the Cleveland Browns into the dominant professional football team in the country the first 10 years of the franchise’s existence in large part with Buckeyes. The former Ohio State head coach who led the Buckeyes to their first national title knew the brand of football that was played in Columbus. He brought in players like future hall of famers Bill Willis, Donte Lavelli and Lou Groza.

During the run between 1946 and 1955, the Browns won 4 All-American Conference Championships and 3 NFL titles. Cleveland played in the championship game all 10 seasons.

Fast forward to today and the Browns rarely draft an Ohio State player. They usually only pick up a Buckeye in free agency as he is finishing up his career.

In the latest draft there were 12 Ohio State players chosen and two others made a team as undrafted free agents. None of them play for Cleveland.

Instead of the new cybernetics, or whatever it’s called, wouldn’t it be a better idea if Cleveland would just assign a couple of scouts to pay attention to the tremendous college football being played in their own back yard. Just a thought from a lifelong Cleveland Browns fan.

share

Get more from College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

College Football

Cleveland Browns

Detroit Lions

New Orleans Saints

National Football League