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We are just a couple of weeks away from this year’s NFL draft. For the Cleveland Browns, things don’t get interesting until late on day two but that won’t stop the reports and rumors flying around an interesting team. GM Andrew Berry has been active throughout his time at the top of the Browns front office and that is likely to continue with this year’s draft.
Predraft visits are always of interest. Teams bring in players for a variety of reasons including planning to possibly draft them, in case they go undrafted or as a scouting mechanism for the future. No matter who Cleveland Brings in, the prospect is likely to play for or against the team at some point.
For the future, it can also help the team if/when a player becomes a free agent in the future. Obviously, that assumes that Berry and company are still in place in four or five years but good front offices plan for the now and the later.
Two interesting quarterbacks will be heading to Berea this week. UCLA Bruins QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson was in town on Tuesday:
The Browns are hosting UCLA QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson on a visit today, per source.
— Ryan Fowler (@_RyanFowler_) April 4, 2023
DTR as he is known, is an athletic prospect with five years as a starter at UCLA. While he has experience and is a dynamic athlete, Thompson-Robinson is an inconsistent thrower of the football. As such, his mock draft average is near the top of the sixth round.
Another mobile quarterback is due to visit the Browns this week. Houston Cougars QB Clayton Tune has a busy schedule in front of him:
#Houston QB Clayton Tune will be visiting the #Saints tomorrow and the #Browns later this week, source said, and he has upcoming visits and/or workouts with the #Giants, #Steelers, #Bucs, #Rams and hometown #Texans. After the first 4 QBs, it’s wide open.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 4, 2023
Like DTR, Tune comes out of a spread offense that puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback to make decisions in both the run and pass games. Tune’s issues come from his inability to push the ball downfield. His mock draft average is a little higher than Thompson-Robinson's currently, late in the fifth round.
As noted, Cleveland could be bringing in these two QB prospects for a variety of reasons including some interest in them late in the draft. Currently, Josh Dobbs and Kellen Mond are the backups to Deshaun Watson. While Dobbs was re-signed, Mond’s future is much more uncertain at this point.
With eight draft picks, Berry using one to create competition for Mond as the team’s developmental quarterback makes sense. While NFL free agency is used to address immediate needs, the NFL draft is mostly about the future. With quarterback the most important position in the game, continued investment there, especially late in the draft, is prudent.
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