The Cleveland Browns may be looking at a trade for Kirk Cousins coming into the NFL draft, as the team may miss out on drafting Blake Bortles or Johnny Manziel and could go for Sammy Watkins or Jadeveon Clowney instead and if that doesn't work out, the Browns have been keeping their tabs on Derek Carr, who is quickly moving up draft boards, while Carlos Hyde is a second round possibility.
The Browns are coming into the draft with some major needs and one of those is at quarterback, as they got rid of Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden this offseason. The team has Brian Hoyer, but right now he isn't an option since he is injured and that means Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer will have to decide whether or not a QB in the top five is the right move. According to the MMQB.com, scouts are team execs are worried about these quarterbacks as franchise players and that could lead to teams passing up on them.
Some reports have the Browns looking at Sammy Watkins, Khalil Mack, Greg Robinson and Jadeveon Clowney as better options than the quarterbacks, as the Browns like Derek Carr and he could be an option later in the first round or in the second round. The Texans start things off and there are three teams in the top four that could go after QBs and that means Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel could be gone by the time the Browns pick anyway, which would throw their plans out if they liked those players.
According to ESPN.com, the Browns were one team that was interested in trading for Kirk Cousins easier in the offseason and now that the redskins have signed Colt McCoy, that could be a solid option. The Browns have enough picks to make a deal and still handle adding players on both sides of the ball and on top of that, adding Cousins would allow the team to avoid using their picks at number four and 26 on a QB, meaning impact players could be brought in like Mack, or Watkins, or Robinson.
The Browns have the chance to make a deal if they want to, as they are coming in with 10 picks overall, so if they opted to take a skills player over a QB like Manziel early, they can afford making that Cousins deal and still have a solid draft. The team is set up great with three picks in the top 35 and that happened because of the Trent Richardson deal and they now could move up or down as they choose because of that flexibility.
The team has some valuable picks in a draft this deep, as they have two third round picks and two fourth round picks and teams could be looking at those as targets as well. The Browns were just 4-12 last season and while they ranked 11th in passing yards per game, they were just 27th in rushing and that could make Hyde an option. The team gained 86 yards per game and Hyde is from Ohio State and he was excellent while going for over 1,500 yards and he also had over 15 scores and that could be a good tandem with Ben Tate for the Browns.
