B-
Cleveland Browns
The Browns let Stowers fall into their laps, and walked away with a B-.
by TBarin13 ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 5 steals
· 0 reaches
Somebody in pick No. 107 was going to get robbed, and it turned out to be the rest of the league. The Browns sat still while Eli Stowers, the No. 56 name on the board, slid all the way to them, then sprinted to the podium. Solid and sensible more than spectacular: a B-.
That quarterback hole did not close this weekend, and it was the biggest one on the wall. The roster is better shaped than it was, with wide receiver chief among the fixes.
In sum, a sturdy weekend with one asterisk, the quarterback spot they never got to.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 6 they get a coverage-and-run second-level piece. Need was not the driver here.
In the 24th overall pick they get a plug-and-play piece up front at fair value. A real need, handled.
A slide stopped in pick No. 39, with Chris Brazzell II worth more than the price. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
The board fumbled Keith Abney II all the way to Round 3, Pick 6, and they scooped it up. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Eli Stowers at No. 107 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
No drama and no debate, CJ Daniels went about where he belonged in pick 146. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A clean, defensible pick in the Round 5 slot with a little surplus value in Chris McClellan. It fills a real need, too.
Keagen Trost at the 206th pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
The board had Robert Spears-Jennings higher than No. 248, and the safety fell to them anyway. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.