The Cleveland Browns are in a tough spot.
Heading into the bye week, Cleveland is 2-7 with little realistic chances of making the AFC playoffs this year.
The Browns became sellers during the NFL trade deadline, sending Detroit a 2026 seventh-round pick and defensive end Za’Darius Smith in exchange for the Lions’ 2025 fifth-rounder and a 2026 sixth-round selection.
While analysts had suggested the Browns were looking for a fourth-round pick for Smith, Cleveland settled on a later-round selection as the franchise attempts to stockpile draft selections.
It’s a move that analyst Tyler Brooke lauded.
In his The 33rd Team article grading every team’s draft deadline deals, Brooke gave the Browns a “B” grade for the deal and suggested it was the right choice for Cleveland to make.
“Moving up in the 2026 draft and getting a fifth-round pick seems like solid value for this move,” Brook wrote.
The analyst suggested the Browns are in “a tough situation” due to the team’s financial issues for next year.
Adding draft picks – and rookies on more affordable deals – will help the Browns improve their financial situation in 2025, he noted.
“The only slight knock on the move is that the Browns have to eat $16 million in dead cap for 2025, but that might have been inevitable anyway if the Browns wanted to get out of Smith’s contract next offseason,” Brooke added.
Cleveland will be off this weekend before the Browns will return to the field on November 17, squaring off against the New Orleans Saints.
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