With Wild Card Weekend wrapping up on Monday night the Cleveland Browns now know exactly where both of their first-round picks will fall in the 2026 NFL Draft order
Despite not participating in wild-card weekend, the Cleveland Browns had plenty of reason to watch the opening round of the NFL playoffs, particularly Sunday's matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Cleveland, of course, owns the Jags' first-round pick this year. The selection was at the center of the two teams' draft night trade last year, which saw Jacksonville move up to No. 2 overall to select Heisman winner Travis Hunter, while the Browns slid back to the fifth pick and drafted Mason Graham.
And so, the Jaguars 27-24 loss to the Bills, coupled with the other results that have played out through the first five games of the wild-card round have officially locked in where the Browns second first-rounder will fall.
Even with one game to go, Jacksonville's pick is officially slated to be No. 24 overall. The result of Monday night's matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans is irrelevant because both teams have a worse record than the Jags, and therefore can't finish any lower than 23rd in the order
Meanwhile, after finishing the regular season last weekend 5-12, the Browns were already locked into the No. 6 spot in the order with their own first-round. Now they officially know that they'll own picks six and 24 come April.
Having two first-rounders gives Cleveland some critical draft flexibility. Vice president of football operations Andrew Berry can stay put and use both picks to bolster the roster in key areas if he wants. He could look to package them together and move up and potentially draft a quarterback of the future. Such a move would obviously require another team to be willing to trade back.
Berry will have a lot of options at his disposal in what will be another critical draft for the franchise. The Browns' top executive delivered what's easily his best draft class in 2025, landing the likely Defensive Rookie of the Year in LB Carson Schwesinger and several other key pieces like TE Harold Fannin Jr., RB Quinshon Judkins and Graham.
That draft class is one of the main reasons team owner Jimmy Haslan cited for Berry remaining with the franchise, despite moving on from head coach Kevin Stefanski.
"I want to comment on Andrew because I know there’s questions out there – well, why didn’t you change both of them? Or why didn’t you change Andrew and not Kevin? And I would say this," he said. "I think Andrew over the last year has done a very good job, and I want to go through that because I think it’s important to talk about the moves he made to strengthen our team."
In three months, Berry will have another opportunity to bolster the Browns roster again. Having two first-round picks is a good place to start.