Browns and Skins Should Trade Their 1st Round Pick

Now that the NFL draft is upon us, I felt it was appropriate to update the Browns first round futility post I made earlier last fall. After Cleveland traded Braylon Edwards mid-season I thought their first round draft choice track record could not get any worse. I was way wrong, since during the offseason the front office shipped out pretty boy Brady Quinn and fellow first round pick Kamerion Wimbley. That leaves only Joe Thomas and last year’s pick, Alex Mack, remaining on the team. That’s two players out of their eleven first round draft picks since their reincarnation still on the roster. That 18% retention rate is the worst in the league, with the Skins coming in second at 30%. While one of the top offensive tackles (Okung, Bulaga, Williams) would be a good fit in Chris Samuels absence for the Skins, and the Browns need a defensive game changer like Eric Berry, the evidence points to both teams trading down. Hopefully the new Holmgren and Bruce Allen/Shanahan regimes in DC and Cleveland can reverse these trends. The Browns might as well do this. Here is the updated chart.