Draft Travis Hunter? Draft Abdul Carter? Trading second pick is real option for Browns

The first round of the NFL draft begins at 8 p.m., April 24. The Titans own the first pick and are expected to use it on Miami quarterback Cam Ward.

Then the drama will begin when Browns general manager Andrew Berry is on the clock with the second pick.

Berry can simply select cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter from Colorado. Hunter has been the consensus mock draft pick to the Browns for two months. But that doesn’t mean anything because sometimes mock drafts follow each other like people in a conga line.

I have the Browns taking Hunter in my mock draft, but it would be no surprise if Berry traded the pick, used it on Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter or even shocked the world by taking quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

Teams have 10 minutes to make their selection after the team in front of them makes its pick in the first round. There is absolutely nothing Berry can learn about the remaining prospects after the Titans make their pick. The longer the drama builds, the greater the chance of Berry trading the pick.

“We’ll use the whole shot clock, so to speak,” Berry said during his pre-draft news conference April 17. “We’ll use all the time afforded to us and make sure that we have a thorough plan depending on what happens at number one.”

The Browns have a first-round draft pick for the first time since 2021. They haven’t owned a pick this early since former general manager John Dorsey selected quarterback Baker Mayfield with the first pick in 2018.

Hunter, 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns last season with the Colorado Buffaloes. He played 13 games at cornerback, intercepted four passes and broke up seven additional passes. He made 37 tackles.

A receiving corps of Jerry Jeudy, Hunter, Cedric Tillman and tight end David Njoku would do wonders for the Browns’ offense. The Browns last year scored the fewest points (258) in the NFL.

But this draft is about more than what Berry does with the first pick. It would be extremely unlikely for him to use it on a quarterback unless he trades back into the mid-teens and picks up future picks plus a veteran in the process.

The way the first round unfolds will dictate whether the Browns use the first pick in the second round on a quarterback. The Browns have the first pick in the second round (pick 33). The Giants have pick 34. Some mock drafts have the Giants trading their pick to the Eagles for the last pick in the first round so they could jump ahead of the Browns to take Sanders with the 32nd pick.

Berry has been looking for an edge rusher to pair with Myles Garrett for four years. Fortunately for the Browns, the draft is deep at edge rusher and at running back.

The Browns need to come out of the draft with a running back regardless of whether the re-sign Nick Chubb. They need help at defensive tackle and offensive tackle.

Safety is a concern. Juan Thornhill was released and Rodney McLeod retired. Grant Delpit is established as the starting free safety, but someone else is needed at the back end.