With Corey Coleman Trade, Browns Reach New Level of Bad Drafting

Cleveland has moved on from Corey Coleman, which means the team no longer has any of its first-round draft picks made from 2010–16. How bad is that compared to the rest of the NFL?

The Cleveland Browns traded 2016 first-round pick Corey Coleman to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night, officially wiping away every single first-round draft pick the franchise has made from ’10–16. And they’ve had quite a few.

First, a look at where they’ve all ended up…

Year: 2010
Player: Joe Haden
Still in the league? Yes
With who? Pittsburgh Steelers

Year: 2011
Player: Phil Taylor
Still in the league? Yes
With who? Washington

Year: 2012
Player: Trent Richardson
Still in the league? NO

Year: 2012
Player: Brandon Weeden
Still in the league? Yes
With who? Houston Texans

Year: 2013
Player: Barkevious Mingo
Still in the league? Yes
With who? Seattle Seahawks

Year: 2014
Player: Justin Gilbert
Still in the league? NO

Year: 2014
Player: Johnny Manziel
Still in the league? Kind of
With who? CFL’s Montreal Alouettes (more here on his lackluster—to put it nicely—debut)

Year: 2015
Player: Danny Shelton
Still in the league? Yes
With who? New England Patriots

Year: 2015
Player: Cameron Erving
Still in the league? Yes
With who? Kansas City Chiefs

Year: 2016
Player: Corey Coleman
Still in the league? Yes
With who? Buffalo Bills

The Browns Really, Really Are Tyrod Taylor’s Team. Really

How bad is it by comparison? This is definitely one end of the bell curve. The Browns are notorious for rapid changes at the executive level, which lead to unusually large alterations in organizational philosophy. Here are the numbers from eight randomly selected teams across the NFL:

Jets: 2 of 8 first-round draft picks from 2010–16 (Leonard Williams and Darron Lee)
Ravens: 4 of 5 (Jimmy Smith, C.J. Mosely, Breshad Perriman, Ronnie Stanley)
Seahawks: 2 of 5 (Earl Thomas, Germain Ifedi)
49ers: 4 of 9 (Jimmie Ward, Arik Armstead, Joshua Garnett, DeForest Buckner)
Patriots: 1 of 6 (Devin McCourty)
Titans: 4 of 7 (Derrick Morgan, Jack Conklin, Taylor Lewan, Marcus Mariota)
Falcons: 5 of 6 (Julio Jones, Desmond Trufant, Jake Matthews, Vic Beasley, Keanu Neal)
Lions: 2 of 7 (Ezekiel Ansah, Taylor Decker)

So, yes, the Browns are bad and their scattershot organizational approach has cost them dearly in the foundation-building department. However if this exercise teaches us anything it’s how weird the draft is and how good teams can remain good teams without much success in the first round. It also shows us that some teams are willing to hang onto projects longer than others.

Cleveland is only going to get better by maintaining some kind of identity for a sustained period of time. The John Dorsey regime, which inspired the organization to finally come out of the shadows and embrace its rebuild, seems like the most spirited attempt yet at putting a competitive team on the field. Should owner Jimmy Haslam change his mind again, though, Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward better start looking for a good real-estate agent.

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