Cleveland Browns: Ezra Cleveland in Round 1 is not a good plan

The Cleveland Browns need offensive tackles and Ezra Cleveland could be a fit for them. However, they can’t let his Scouting Combine workouts lead them to overdraft him in Round 1

One of the better pieces of advice given ahead of the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine came from Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians. He said that you can become “broke” if you “fall in love” with the workouts at the Combine — which is so true.

Every one of these players hoping to be selected in the 2020 NFL Draft has put years of tape out there to be studied. That should be the No. 1 scouting tool and then workouts, such as the Combine, can help answer questions that may linger while also provided some testing to confirm what you should already know.

Most teams would agree this is the way it should be done, but year after year teams fall in love with what they see in the Underwear Olympics and over-draft a player — see John Ross. For the Cleveland Browns, they need to make sure they don’t fall in love with a prospect for his work in the Combine and ignore everything else.

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And right now, there are whispers that they could be smitten — which could be a bad thing. According to Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network, Cleveland is falling in love with a player that doesn’t feel like a first-round pick, Ezra Cleveland.

"“Boise State tackle Ezra Cleveland continues to move up draft boards, as I expected he would. He completed 30 reps on the bench press yesterday and just missed finishing rep number 31. Expect fast times from Cleveland today, as he could potentially get under 4.9 seconds. Speaking with several people, it seems the Cleveland Browns like Cleveland (no pun intended) a lot. I could see the Browns trading a few slots down in round one if one of their higher-rated tackles is not available when they are on the clock to then select the Boise State junior. Cleveland won’t be available to the Browns in the second round.” — Pauline, Pro Football Network"

Before the draft, Cleveland looked to be a day two prospect. Now, as Pauline said, he might not be there in the early portion of the second round. So, what changed?

The answer to that is his workouts. Cleveland was beyond impressive putting up a 40-yard dash time of 4.93 seconds along with a broad jump of 111 inches and a vertical leap of 30 inches. The Boise State product also had a good showing in the bench press, scoring 30 reps.

All of that is impressive and the Browns could do much worse than landing Cleveland. However, skipping on a higher-level player such as Mekhi Becton or Tristan Wirfs to trade down and land Cleveland later isn’t ideal.

Sure, the Browns have many more needs than left tackle. However, they have to get this one right. They can’t grab an athletic player who doesn’t have first-round tape. Not when you already have your franchise quarterback in Baker Mayfield as well as Nick Chubb, Odell Beckham, Jr. and Jarvis Landry.

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Cleveland has the weapons. What they don’t have is the players that do the dirty work. And staying put and landing a player at No. 10 overall that has the potential to be an All-Pro at one of the most important positions in the game seems to be a better idea.

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