Browns In Contact With Teams In Top-8 Picks About Potential Trade Up

Mike Silver of NFL Media reports that the Browns have spoken to three teams drafting in the top-8 picks about the possibility of them trading up from No. 12 overall.

“The Browns have been doing their due diligence and investigating the possibility,” Silver said. “I’ve learned that at least three teams in the top eight have been contacted by the Browns and discussions have taken place about the prospect of moving up. Now this is something that would likely happen in real time when these teams were on the clock because obviously if the target is Mitchell Trubisky and he goes earlier than expected, then those discussions would be moot.

“The Browns could still take Trubisky at No. 1. They could still trade down and try to take him a little lower than one. The more likely scenario right now would be trying to use that 12th pick and get up a little higher to get the quarterback of the future.”

Mike Garafolo mentions that one team looking to move back is the Panthers at No. 8 if some of their targets like RB Leonard Fournette are no longer on the board.

While the overall expectation is that the Browns will take Texas A&M DE Myles Garrett with the No. 1 overall pick, there has been a lot of buzz about them trading back into the top-10 picks for a quarterback such as UNC’s Mitch Trubisky.

The Browns have the draft picks to make a move up and some have said that with so many teams interested in trading down, it’s possible that it may require just a second-round pick to move up into the top of round one.

Of course, there are wildcard scenarios like the buzz that the 49ers are considering a quarterback at No. 2 overall and the possibility that another team could trade up to get their quarterback like the Cardinals.

Even so, the Browns are still the team best positioned to make such a move and there figures to be plenty of buzz about them working to acquire a quarterback in the coming days.

Trubisky, 22, is considered by a number of draft experts to be the No. 1 quarterback prospect in this year’s draft class, even though he started just one year at North Carolina.

Trubisky worked out for or visited with the Bills, 49ers, Jets, Chiefs and Browns.

During his three-year college career, Trubisky has thrown for 4,762 yards while completing 67.5 percent of his passes to go along with 41 touchdowns and 10 interceptions over the course of 31 games. He’s also contributed another 439 yards rushing and eight touchdowns.

We’ll have more regarding the Browns as the news is available.