BEREA — The Browns used their first pick of the final day of the draft to take a safety. However, it wasn’t until the sixth-round.
After trading out of the fourth round and fifth rounds, the Browns used their pick in the sixth round (175th overall) to take safety Jamoris Slaughter from Notre Dame.
Slaughter (5- 11, 195) ruptured his left Achilles tendon in the third game of the season against Michigan State, thus the reason for the fall.
Slaughter said he expects to be ready for training camp.
“With my injury I’m about 90 percent now,” he said. “I’m doing sprinting and cutting. It’s all coming back in line. The main thing for me is getting my power and explosion back. It’s coming along pretty well and I should be ready for training camp.”
Slaughter said his injury was freakish.
“It was third game of the season against Michigan State and on the first play of second half I was backpedaling and felt something pop,” he said. “I was heartbroken when the trainers told me because I knew I was out for the rest of the season.”
Slaughter had 98 tackles in his career with two sacks and two interceptions, including Slaughter 45 tackles in 2011 with two sacks and a forced fumble.
“It’s an excellent pick,” Mike Mayock said on NFL Network. “He’s a player that will play special teams and will compete for a starting position.”
Pro Football Weekly described Slaughter as an ‘explosive striker who relishes high speed collisions’.
He was originally projected to be a third or fourth round pick before suffering the season-ending injury.
Slaughter said the Browns had shown interest through his agent, but he wasn’t sure he would be drafted.
“I expected to go undrafted because the injury,” he admitted. “Then, it didn’t surprise me to get drafted.
“My agent said the Browns contacted him a couple days before the draft and gave the indication they were very interested in me.”
Slaughter thinks he will be in the mix to play at free safety. He is expected to battle Tashaun Gipson, Eric Hagg and Johnson Bademosi for playing time.
”I definitely think I can compete,” he said. “I have a competitors mind and I want to play.”
