NFL Draft: Top hits and misses for the Browns under Andrew Berry

The Cleveland Browns hired Andrew Berry as their new general manager on January 27, 2020. He had been with Cleveland from 2016-2018 as the vice president of player personnel before moving on to the Philadelphia Eagles as their vice president of football operations. The Browns called and inked him to the GM position one year later.

Browns head coach Hue Jackson had been fired in late October to which DC Gregg Williams took over but was passed over for the vacancy. The new head coach, Kevin Stefanski, was hired on January 13 by team owner Jimmy Haslam so that was one less thing for Berry to do right off.

Taking care of existing players and deciding which ones to re-sign took priority. Then, it was time to focus on free agency and a short month later the NFL draft.

The NFL college draft is the best avenue to build a roster into a competitive team. Contracts are salary cap-friendly, especially in the later stages of the agreement. Along with a productive free agency period, this process is also an essential portion of roster building.

Berry has now drafted five years for Cleveland. The 2025 NFL draft period will be his sixth. The Browns finished the 2024 season tied for the worst record in the league at 3-14-0 and it is Berry’s player signings that provide the coaching staff what they need for the franchise’s product on the field.

Every draft determines what that club’s future will become. With three years’ worth of players selected in rounds 1-4, that accounts for 34% of the roster. The odds only grow with the addition of several Day 3 draft picks.

On the current roster are numerous young athletes who Berry drafted to not just compete for a job, but to come in and become a starter. On the flipside, there are other players that have come and gone who did not develop as the scouts predicted and are playing for another NFL club, in the CFL or UFL, or out of football completely.

Now that Berry has had five years of running the NFL draft for the Browns, how has he done with his decisions? He has drafted a total of 37 players. Excluding the 2024 draft class, there are 15 players still on the roster with some being nominal performers such as WRs David Bell and Michael Woods, C Nick Harris, CB Cam Mitchell, and DE Alex Wright.

With those 37 draftees, Berry’s draft selections have garnered the following accolades:

• PFWA All-Rookie Team: (6) OT Jed Wills, TE Harrison Bryant, LB JOK, CB Greg Newsome, PR Demetric Felton, and OT Dawand Jones.
• Pro Bowls: (1) JOK (2023)
• First Team All-Pro: (0)
• Second Team All-Pro: (0)

Let’s take a look at this “Draft Edition” of Brownies & Frownies.

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Brownies

S Grant Delpit (drafted in 2020) – The talented safety has been a roller coaster as far as a starting player. Coming out of college his scouting report praised his coverage skills but warned of his sub-par tackling issues. That problem persisted until someone showed Delpit how to tackle legs instead of jumping onto shoulder pads and riding along. Since then, he has been an excellent tackler. In 2023 he was the team’s leading tackler until he suffered a groin injury that ended his season.

Delpit had 105 total tackles in his second season, 80 in his injury-shortened season, then 111 last year. He has truly been a good defender and should be a Pro Bowl candidate going forward. He is an exceptional veteran leader.

LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (drafted in 2021) – He played quite a bit in his rookie season, but finally began to blossom into a complete defender in 2023 when he was voted to the Pro Bowl. He had 101 tackles that season and 3.5 sacks. Early on he was hampered by an ankle issue followed by a foot problem, so lack of durability has been his only downfall. In Week 8 last year he suffered a neck injury against the Baltimore Ravens while trying to tackle RB Derrick Henry and taken off the field via the cart. It is still unknown how his progress is going, but once he hits the field the defense performs a lot better especially in run support.

CB Martin Emerson, Jr. (drafted in 2022) – Without a first or second round draft pick in 2022, Berry had to dig deep to come up with a home run with his first selection and did so with Emerson. The choice of yet another cornerback was a surprise to most since the team already had Pro Bowler Denzel Ward and had spent a first-round pick on Greg Newsome a year earlier. But Emerson had a great training camp plus preseason, and by mid-season had bumped Newsome from his starting outside corner position. His physicality was impressive and his coverage skills showed up every game. In his sophomore campaign, it was surprising that Emerson did not make the Pro Bowl. Last year he had some bumps and bruises in his play, but he is a fighter and should bounce back.

OT Dawand Jones (drafted 2023) – This one is a borderline Brownie. When he plays, Jones can dominate even though he is just 23 years old. Obviously his size (6’-8”, 374 pounds) is an advantage for him but also has its downfalls in that he is a person who constantly has to watch his weight, especially during the off-season months. Those pizza buffet nights can be a nightmare. Jones has long arms and is able to engage quickly with his defender, then his core strength is able to push his opponent deep way past the pocket and out of harm’s way. He has good feet which enables him to adjust to inside moves. His issues are the fact that he has been in the league two years and has been placed on IR twice. No matter how good a player is, if you can’t stay on the field your talent is useless. He has excellent versatility and can be inserted on either side without any problems in the adjustment. Jones has played in 21 games with 17 starts but has already missed 11 games in just two seasons.

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Frownies

OT Jedrick Wills (drafted 2020) – This was Berry’s very first draft pick as the keyholder to the Browns kingdom. What Berry assumed was that he had found the franchise’s future at left tackle. Berry had just signed free agent RT Jack Conklin a month earlier, and in his haste to solve the issues with the offensive line, took Wills as the second offensive tackle off the board with the 10^th overall pick in Round 1 after the New York Football Giants had nabbed OT Andrew Thomas.

But Wills struggled as a rookie as he was moved from his natural position of right tackle to the leftside. As the years rolled along, he demonstrated he could not control men who were 5-6 years older with an equal amount of pro football experience. Wills was adequate and a good run blocker, but his downfall was his inability to keep out defenders who had a quick first step.

Wills’ strategy to this was to extend a hand and hope to engage and push the defender deeper than the pocket towards the outside. But spin moves, bull rushes, and a quick get off to the outside were always his downfall.

What made the initial selection of Wills agitating is the fact that OT Tristan Wirfs was chosen just three picks later by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Wirfs has since been voted to four Pro Bowls, named First Team All-Pro twice, Second Team All-Pro once, selected to the NFL All-Rookie Team, and has won a Super Bowl ring. In this same period, Wills was also selected to the NFL All-Rookie Team, and, well, that’s it. He has never sniffed a Pro Bowl nod or been mentioned as a candidate.

TE Harrison Bryant (drafted 2020) – The fact that Bryant was the Mackey Award winner as the nation’s best college football tight end, a Two-Time All-USA Conference player, plus an Unanimous All-American was plenty appealing when Berry selected Bryant in the fourth round. How could this be with that much talent sitting there late on Day 2?

Bryant impressed as a rookie and showed promise as he secured the TE3 spot. He only had 24 catches for 238 yards, but scored three touchdowns and was voted to the NFL All-Rookie Team. This pretty much was the highlight of his pro career.

He had decent blocking skills, but had issues getting any amount of separation from defenders as a passing threat. Bryant has been in the league for five years now and has 877 yards. No, not for a single season – in his five-year career. Every year, his catches and yards went down to the degree that he is never in the game plan.

It came to a head in his contract year of 2023 with the Browns, with just 13 receptions for 81 yards, yet his cap number was $1.942 million. That calculates to $149,385 per catch. He then signed with the Las Vegas Raiders and made $3.375 million for his nine receptions and paltry 86 yards. Not a bad occupation, eh?

K Cade York (drafted 2022) – This is not a case of signing a guy, but letting him go. Kicker Chase McLaughlin had bounced around the league but found a home in Cleveland. He was 4-4 on kicks of 50+ yards so the offense could rely on his strong leg and was looking forward to the 2022 NFL season. Berry then drafted Cade York with a valuable fourth-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft and three days later McLaughlin was unemployed.

McLaughlin then signed with the Indianapolis Colts and hit 30 of 36 field goals and didn’t miss a single PAT attempt. He finished as the eighth-best kicker in the league. That parlayed into a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and a subsequent three-year extension for $12.3 million. In 2023 he had the eighth-highest field goal percentage at 93.6% and this past season he ranked #3 at 93.8%.

All the while, Cleveland has floundered with kickers since McLaughlin’s departure as they have signed York, Dustin Hopkins, Riley Patterson, Lucas Havrisik, York again, and Andre Szmyt.

It wasn’t so bad to draft York if he had come through. But he caused the team to waste a valuable fourth-round pick and get practically nothing in return.

WR Anthony Schwartz (drafted 2021) – Every draft, Berry selects a receiver. In 2021, his choice was Auburn speedster Anthony Schwartz. The youngster was an Olympic athlete who had 4.25 elite speed. His Twitter handle is @TheRealF1ash. The problem was, he did not have elite hands in order to catch passes. A player cannot move the chains if he doesn’t catch the ball first.

Even on jet sweeps, Schwartz struggled to find open running lanes and any touch by the defender he was down on the turf. He only played in 14 games with 33 targets, 14 receptions, 186 yards, eight first down conversions, one touchdown, 10 rushes for 96 yards, one rushing TD, and a 20% dropped passes per target capacity in his final year. With just four catches his last year, Berry was slow about releasing Schwartz and tried to hang onto him.

DTs Perrion Winfrey, Jordan Elliott, and Tommy Togiai (drafted 2022/2020/2021) – This trio has similar traits so they are grouped together.

Elliott was Berry’s first attempt of taking a DT. But after three seasons, he still was not starting although the team had numerous defensive tackles in camp every year for competition. Elliott just could not crack the starting lineup. He finally did in his contract year, but it was too little too late and was allowed to seek employment elsewhere. His career stats with the Browns was 98 total tackles (for four years), five sacks, eight tackles for loss, 21 pressures, 12 hurries, and 10 QB hits.

Togiai was a local favorite having played for Ohio State. The issue with him was he would constantly become pushed and shoved aside inside of maintaining his gaps. He had almost no penetration skills. He too was allowed to find a new home after starting just two games in two seasons with 29 career tackles and two half-sacks.

Winfrey was simply a knucklehead. He was named one of the draft’s “steals” after being taken in the fourth round. He took the junior college route before transferring to Oklahoma and was named Second Team All-Big 12 two years in a row plus was invited to the Senior Bowl where he was named the game’s MVP.

He was arrested for misdemeanor assault after being accused of grabbing the hand of a woman he was dating, causing “bodily injury.” In another incident, he and CB Greg Newsome were robbed by six masked men at 3am. Winfrey was benched a game for disciplinary reasons. Myles Garrett came out and stated Winfrey needed to learn how to become a pro which translated to Mr. All-World calling him immature. Winfrey was then videotaped striking another woman, stealing her phone, and showed her a gun hidden in his waistband. The Browns cut him several days later. He then signed to the New York Jets practice squad four months later. He now plays for Birmingham of the UFL.

Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

OT James Hudson (drafted 2021) – Another one of Berry’s projects who never panned out. Blessed with good size (6’-5”, 313 pounds) and raised in Toledo, Ohio, Hudson was a former defensive lineman who was converted to the offense. At Cincinnati he settled in at right tackle and is where the Browns used him the most especially when Jack Conklin went through all of his injuries. His blocking consisted of pushing his defender deep to the outside past the pocket. However, if a crafty defender had a good inside maneuver or could pull off a swim move, Hudson was a sucker for the fake and usually it became a sack. In four years with Cleveland, he played on 1,379 snaps, had 14 penalties, and played in 49 games with 17 starts. His 2024 Pro Football Focus pass blocking grade was a horrible 40.2.

QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson (drafted 2023) – The only quarterback Berry has drafted showed promise in his rookie training camp as he was the darling of the 2023 preseason. Of course, those games were played by second and third team guys. When starter Deshaun Watson was ruled out of the Week 4 contest against division foe Baltimore Ravens, it was DTR who made the start and showed exactly the opposite of his spectacular play displayed in the exhibition games. He tossed three picks and gained just 121 passing yards in the 28-3 loss which showed almost no offense. Over two seasons, DTR played in 15 games with five starts and went 1-4 with a 52.6 completion ratio. He threw one TD while completing 10 passes to the other team with a 39.5 QB rating his final year in Cleveland. DTR did display good running skills but could not read a defense and would often go through one progression and then take off from the pocket. His overall PFF grade for 2024 was 45.3.

DT Siaki Ika (drafted 2023) – The Browns were in dire need for defensive tackle help as Berry brought in Ika drafted in Round 3. He was ranked to be grabbed in either Round 4 or 5, so the pick was a surprise especially since a valuable third round selection was used. In the end, his performance was one of the worst seen along the defensive line in a long while. He struggled for snaps and was pushed around for most of every game when he finally found some playing time. Ika weighed too much, could not shed blocks, and didn’t have the ability to take up space in the interior line to fill gaps. The Browns pulled the plug after just one season.

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Milk Bones – You know it never ends well when your friend says, “Here, hold my beer.”

RB Jerome Ford (drafted 2022)– One thing Berry has tried to achieve is to have a decent player as the backup running back. Ford is that athlete. He is a very good kickoff return guy, can block, will run hard, has decent hands in the passing game, and is a reliable complimentary back. The problem is, he is not a home run hitter nor should he be considered your bellcow in the offensive backfield. Once Nick Chubb went down, he filled the starting role and displayed that he is just a so-so option. He had 813 yards after Chubb was lost of the year in 2023 against the Pittsburgh Steelers and converted 33 first downs with 319 receiving yards. Ford has also suffered recurring ankle injuries which has made him a bit tentative and he has struggled with picking up positive yardage.

WR Donovan Peoples-Jones (drafted 2020) – At one point, DPJ was considered to become one of the league’s new stars at receiver despite being a sixth-round draft pick. But he proved to be inconsistent and was a horrible downfield blocker. He possessed good hands, but had an issue with fumbles. This created a strategy to limit his playing time instead of the prominent role he appeared destined to. DPJ did have a core muscle issue but otherwise was healthy. He became the default punt returner and except for his lone TD, his career average was a horrid 7.9 yards per return. His final year in Cleveland he had career highs in starts (14), targets (96), receptions (61) and yards (839). However, he had way too many balls that he could not haul in and his yards after contact were not good as he was easy to tackle. At the trade deadline, he was shipped off to the Detroit Lions for the same sixth-round pick he was brought in on.

Centers Dawson Deaton (2022) and Luke Wypler (2023) - The Browns have a need for backup center it seems every year. For some reason, they cannot get a young guy that doesn’t become a member of IR eventually. Coming out of high school, Deaton had 23 major college offers and was highly-sought after. He was considered one of the top centers in college football as a senior and named Second Team All-Big 12. So it was a bit surprising to see him sitting there in Round 7 when Berry selected him to backup newly-signed free agent Ethan Pocic and Nick Harris. In preseason of his rookie year, he tore his ACL during a practice session that ended his season. A year later he suffered another knee injury and landed on IR once again. In 2024 they released him on an injury designation. Deaton never played in a single game.

Wypler came to the Browns via Ohio State in the sixth-round and played well in preseason. As a rookie, he appeared in five games and started one in place of Pocic. The following season he had a bad ankle injury which required surgery and then placed on season-ending IR.

WR/RB Demetric Felton (drafted 2021) - Felton came to the Browns as a gadget player in that he would go from the receiver room to the running back room to the special teams room as a return specialist. The problem was, he was not good at any position. His rookie training camp plus preseason he looked very good and eventually was named to the NFL All-Rookie Team, but his snaps became less and less in his second season as he had just four targets with two receptions and one rushing attempt and was often a healthy scratch on game days. He was cut on the final cutdown the following training camp.