The Browns aggressive trade up in the second round of the 2021 NFL draft to land an off-ball linebacker in Notre Dame’s Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah appears to break character for GM Andrew Berry. The Berry regime values more draft picks and has largely rendered the off-ball linebacker as the least important position on the field.
Yet Berry could not resist the temptation to trade up from No. 59 to No. 52 to select Owusu-Koramoah, who many projected the Browns would select in the first round at No. 26. Berry anticipated the question in his post-draft interview and acknowledged it was a special exception to the guidelines Cleveland typically follows.
“I guess I would push back on the notion that we do not value linebackers,” Berry said. “It is an important position on the field. In Jeremiah’s case, we did think the fit was really good schematically, but we just thought the overall player was a high-quality prospect. I hesitate to use the words ‘special’ because again, we have to see how it all plays out.”
The Browns moved up without giving up an actual pick. They dealt No. 59 and No. 89 (third round) to the Carolina Panthers for No. 52, but the Panthers also included a later pick, No. 113 overall. The Browns traded that pick in a separate deal with the Detroit Lions, who selected Purdue LB Derrick Barnes. Cleveland picked up a 2022 fourth-round pick in that deal as well.
Browns chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta explained the against-the-grain move in his own presser.
“The rules that we do have in place are very flexible, and they are meant to try to give us the latitude to be aggressive when situations arise that we feel could be advantageous to our club, especially short term and long term,” DePodesta said.
It’s an erudite way of saying they were willing to break character to land a player they really wanted. That’s how much these Browns valued Owusu-Koramoah.
