The Cleveland Browns have been connected to a mammoth prospect in the NFL Draft, as well as a potential trade.
The Cleveland Browns own a pair of first-round picks (Nos. 6 and 24) in this year's NFL Draft, and with a bunch of glaring holes to fill, the Browns will have some painstaking decisions to make between now and Thursday evening.
The general consensus seems to be that Cleveland will be selecting an offensive tackle with its top draft choice and then circling back around to nab a wide receiver at No. 24, which makes sense given how dire the Browns' situation is at both positions.
While Georgia's Monroe Freeling has become a popular name linked to Cleveland at No. 6, Todd McShay of The Ringer is getting the sense that the Browns will go in a different direction.
McShay has Cleveland selecting Alabama tackle Kadyn Proctor, and he feels the Browns might even trade down to do so.
"I’m not going to make this messy with a bunch of trades, but I’ve heard the Browns-Proctor connection for months now," McShay wrote. "They might not take him here, but they should have an opportunity to trade back on Thursday night and take him at a better value. This is a Todd Monken fit, and he’s a left tackle—whereas Utah’s Spencer Fano isn’t a prototypical Monken guy and [Francis] Mauigoa is a right tackle."
Kadyn Proctor. Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images.Proctor is actually one of the more polarizing prospects in this year's draft class. He stands 6-foot-7 and weighs 360 pounds, so he has elite size for the position, but his inconsistency has led some to believe he may have to move inside to guard.
In fact, many mock drafts have Proctor coming off the board in the back end of the first round rather than the top 10, so some may feel this would be a bit of a reach for a Cleveland squad that really cannot afford to miss.
That being said, you simply cannot ignore Proctor's ceiling.
Proctor has the ability to develop into the best tackle — and one of the best players, period — of this draft class, and if the Browns hit a home run with him, it could give them their best tackle since Joe Thomas.
Cleveland has a plethora of needs up and down the roster, but fixing the offensive line is absolutely paramount. Proctor could be just the solution the Browns need, and if they could trade down to land him and acquire more draft capital in the process, even better.
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