2021 NFL Mock Draft: Cleveland Browns Select DE Payton Turner at No. 91

With the 91st (and final) pick of the 2021 DBN Community NFL Mock Draft, the Cleveland Browns select...

Payton Turner, DE, Houston

The selection and write-up were made by Swagnasty:

Turner is a magnetic prospect, especially for the Browns. He’s a huge player, both in length and overall mass, and has exceptional athleticism to go along with it. This combo made him quite productive in college, and he has shown some versatility as well. Great at setting the edge as a run stopper, and as a pass rusher can line up in multiple spots though this might be limited at the NFL level. His technique and instincts are a work in progress, but he’s shown a lot of growth in the past few years and has the opportunity to shine in the right environment. Thanks to the Clowney and McKinley signings, Turner would not have immediate starter expectations and Clowney could even act as a sort of beta tester for the role Turner would eventually fill. On day 2 this kind of high athleticism, high production developmental prospect should be exactly the kind of guy we want.

An obvious question: will he actually be available here? Maybe! I’ve seen him mocked anywhere from round 2 to 6, although I do think there’s a good chance a team falls in love with his tools enough to take him at the top of that range. For the purposes of this very open-ended exercise I decided it was close enough. He will definitely be a name I’ll be watching on Friday. Other considerations would primarily be safety or wide receiver. I like Hamsah Nasirildeen a lot in this spot, but would be redundant with us taking JOK at #26. Someone like Anthony Schwartz would give our offense some firepower and hopefully a starter for 2022 and beyond.

Pokorny: “If Turner is available here, no one will argue with the pick! That’s the challenge of fast-forwarding a few picks, especially with different individuals making the pick: trying to guess whether someone will be available or not. That’s the fun in it, though — and there are many times we’ve seen the Browns draft prospects who fell to the sixth round and had ‘second-round talent,’ like Caleb Brantley. That isn’t quite the story here with Turner, but he would be a nice value player here.”

That concludes our 2021 DBN Community Mock Draft! Thank you to everyone who participated.