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Cleveland Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey may not be making the decision, but he will be making the call for the team in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
The veteran linebacker was among 64 former and current NFL players selected on Thursday to announce the various selections during the NFL Draft, which will take place in Nashville from April 25 through April 27.
The Browns announced the news on the team’s website.
Selections in the second round will be announced for former first-round selections. While the Browns did not release who that will be, it is a safe bet that the former first-round selections under consideration do not include quarterback Johnny Manziel (2014), cornerback Justin Gilbert (2014) or running back Trent Richardson (2012).
The Browns are currently slated to have pick No. 49 in the second round and pick No. 80 in the third round.
Kirksey, a third-round selection in the 2014 NFL Draft, is looking to rebound from a 2018 season that was cut short by a hamstring injury that landed him on injured reserve after just seven games.
The Browns started their offseason program this week and Kirksey spoke on Tuesday about the increased expectations with Bob Papa and Charlie Weis on The Opening Drive program on Sirius/XM NFL radio:
“We look really good on paper,” he said. “But you’ve got to put the pieces together and you’ve got to work. It’s still the NFL, it’s still hard to win ballgames. We’re not winning games just by paper. We just want to block out the noise, because when we were doing bad, we were the talk of the NFL as being a bad team. Now we’re putting the pieces together looking like a good team now, we’re the talk of the NFL.
“So it’s like, we’ve got to just cancel out everything (else) and just go to work. And control what we can control and pay attention to the guys in the room and just get prepared for the season. Now, we’re just focused. We’re not trying to get overly excited or always looking at expectations and saying, ‘OK, we’ve got to be this team, we’ve got to do this.’ We’ve got to control our identity and what we want to be right now and I just block out everything and get to work.”
Kirksey is entering his sixth season with the Browns. A full-time starter in 2016 and 2017, he has totaled 458 tackles, 11.5 sacks and recovered three fumbles.