Report: Browns Ineligible for Compensatory Picks in 2016 Due to Textgate (April Fools)

(Update: This was an April Fools post)

Maybe the Browns are getting a "severe" punishment after all for textgate.

A few days ago, it was reported that Cleveland general manager Ray Farmer would be suspended for four games without pay to begin the 2015 season, and that the club would be fined $250,000 for Farmer's actions of texting on gameday. The good news seemed to be that the club would not be stripped of a draft pick.

While it is still true that the Browns technically won't be "stripped" of any draft pick, new reports are saying that the club will be ineligible for receiving compensatory picks based on what happened in this year's free agency.

That normally wouldn't be an issue for Cleveland, who has had the fewest compensatory picks in the NFL since the league started handing them out in 1994. However, the Browns' free agency approach this offseason saw them lose a lot of their own free agents -- and since the players they signed were cut by their previous teams (as opposed to their contracts naturally expiring), Cleveland was due for 3-4 lucrative compensatory picks in the 2016 draft. Not any more, it seems.

Click here to read the league's reasoning for the move, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.

APRIL FOOLS!