Browns Must Learn from Past Draft Mistakes, Cannot Miss in 2015 1st Round

For the past three seasons, the first round of the NFL draft has been incomplete at best for the Cleveland Browns, and poor at worst.

Of their five first-round picks over those three years, only three remain: 2013's selection, linebacker Barkevious Mingo, and 2014's two additions, cornerback Justin Gilbert and quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Their two selections from 2012, running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden, are already on other teams. And Gilbert and Manziel are works in progress, on thin ice as the offseason unfolds.

The 2012 first round wasn't a total loss, of course. While Weeden was released outright in 2014 and later picked up by the Dallas Cowboys, Richardson was traded to the Indianapolis Colts just two weeks into the 2013 season for a first-round pick that proved to be more valuable than Richardson's contributions to his new team.

Year	Round/Pick	Player	Result
2014	1-8th	CB Gilbert	Suspended, Week 17
2014	1-22nd	QB Manziel	Fined, Week 17; 2 Starts
2013	1-6th	OLB Mingo	7.0 Sacks in 2 Seasons
2012	1-3rd	RB Richardson	Traded to Colts, 2013
2012	1-22nd	QB Weeden	Released, 2014
2011	1-21st	DT Taylor	2011 PFWA All-Rookie
2010	1-7th	CB Haden	2-Time Pro Bowl
2009	1-21st	C Mack	2-Time Pro Bowl

Still, that Richardson pick produced the Browns' selection of Manziel—a selection that CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora claims was influenced not by head coach Mike Pettine or even general manager Ray Farmer but by team owner Jimmy Haslam.

According to La Canfora, the Browns had two quarterbacks—Teddy Bridgewater and Derek Carr—higher on their draft board than Manziel but opted with the Texas A&M product because of Haslam's interest. This happened despite the fact that Bridgewater and Carr were both still undrafted when the Browns made their pick.

Manziel ultimately lost the starting quarterback battle to Cleveland native Brian Hoyer during 2014's training camp. Though Manziel did get playing time—including two starts in Weeks 15 and 16—he played just 79 snaps in his rookie season, according to Pro Football Focus, and there's no guarantee that he'll be the starter in 2015.

Though likely to battle for the job, Pettine and Farmer both have vowed to leave "no stone unturned," as Farmer put it to Nathan Zegura of the Browns' official site, in their search for a starting quarterback this offseason, which means Manziel will again have competition for the job for the second straight year. 

This isn't a bad thing. Neither is Manziel's current stint in treatment, reportedly for his alcohol use. In fact, his proactive approach to an issue that has dogged him—at least publicly—dating back to college could allow him to refocus on his NFL career.

What is more troubling, in fact, is the rookie-year performance of Manziel's fellow first-round pick, Gilbert. Gilbert didn't have a bad year, as far as playing cornerback is concerned. In his 373 snaps played, he gave up just 29 catches on 48 targets for 379 yards and 94 yards after the catch. He allowed one touchdown, had one interception and had seven passes defensed, good enough to rank him Pro Football Focus' 65th-best corner of the year (out of 108).

However, Gilbert's preparation and practice habits were poor, so much so that his veteran teammates spent the end of the season calling him out to do better. Safety Donte Whitner told ESPN.com's Jeremy Fowler in December, "It's time to grow up and not be a kid anymore. It's a wasted year for [Gilbert]. There were so many ups, so many downs—a lot of it has been brought on by himself."

Linebacker Karlos Dansby echoed that sentiment, saying:

"

You've got to live up to expectations and you've got to play up to expectations and that's what we expect of him. ... It's a learning curve for him and we all understand that, but at some point the switch has to turn on and you've got to go for it and we haven't seen him just go for it and do it on a consistent basis. ... He needs to step up to the plate in practice, meetings, everything.

"

This came on the heels of Gilbert's missing the Saturday walkthrough for Week 17's game—just one day after promising his teammates he'd work harder and renew his focus on football. In result, Pettine suspended him for the season finale.

Now, first-round draft picks are never guaranteed to have long, productive NFL careers simply because of their draft pedigrees.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

In fact, NFL.com's Marc Sessler took a look at first-round picks from 1999 to 2008 last year and found that just 67 of 157 offensive players and 65 of 158 defensive players taken in the first round started at least one game in their sixth year in the league. Just 11 of 28 quarterbacks had a start six years after being drafted.

But the nature of the Browns' recent failures in the first round is symptomatic of a larger problem. There has been a lack of continuity in both coaching and the front office, which means constant turnaround in personnel philosophy. One coach's or general manager's sure thing can be completely useless to the regime that follows.

And when that regime follows just one year later—as it has from 2012, when head coach Pat Shurmur and general manager Tom Heckert selected Richardson and Weeden, only to give way to Rob Chudzinski, Mike Lombardi and Joe Banner a year later, only for that to give way to the current Pettine-Farmer setup—there's no way for the previous year's—or years'—draft picks (first-round or not) to have significant value to the new regime.

Year	Snaps	Sacks	Hits	Hurries	Tackles	PD
2013	668	5.0	7	18	42	4
2014	681	2.0	5	20	42	4
Total	1,349	7.0	12	38	84	8

In fact, the only (relative) constant has been Mingo, but even he hasn't produced as hoped when taken sixth overall in 2013. Mingo played just 681 of a possible 1,177 Browns defensive snaps in 2014, up just barely from his 668 snaps in his rookie season. In two years, he's totaled 84 tackles and seven sacks.

Clearly, Mingo hasn't lived up to his draft billing, but at least he hasn't been traded, cut or publicly called out by his teammates over his two seasons. That is, it must be admitted, an improvement over the other four first-round picks the Browns have added since 2012.

Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

It's not that the Browns must find two future Pro-Bowlers with their two first-round picks in the 2015 draft. But at the very least, they must find players who can contribute early and often, who are dedicated to both the Browns as an organization and NFL football as a job and who won't be tossed out by the current or any future regime without a second thought.

Teams can certainly build the cores of their rosters using middle-round draft picks. In fact, Rounds 3 through 5 are where the real values and steals in the draft generally come from. But if a front office and coaching staff cannot get their first-round selections right, year after year, then the team as a whole isn't being set up for success.

Enough with the character and off-field red flags being brushed aside in favor of jersey sales. Enough with Haslam's interference with the football side of the decision-making process, where he has no experience and no true authority. Enough with the clearly incomplete work being done to investigate draft picks—or on $100,000 being spent on a comparative study of quarterbacks, only for its findings to be tossed aside.

But most importantly, enough with the carousel of coaching and front-office staff that has put the Browns in the unfortunate position of getting little to nothing out of their most recent first-round draft picks. There should be no reason that two first-round picks from 2012 are not on the roster two years later. Yet, here the Browns are.

The Browns' 2015 first-round picks, which are still months away from being chosen, do not have to pan out as sure things. In fact, first-round picks are never sure things, no matter which team drafts them. But they should at least stick on the roster for the duration of their rookie contracts. 

However, smart drafting has been lacking in Cleveland since 2012. And it's necessary in 2015 for this team to move forward from its most recent past mistakes and start building—actually building—something positive for the future.