BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns are a week away from making their first selection with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. It's a big selection, one that has come with plenty of scouting and private workouts.
That part of the process has officially wrapped, and the Browns now wait to see how the board falls.
So, with all of their research done, who will they take with that crucial first pick?
Browns general manager, Andrew Berry, held his pre-draft media availability on Thursday to discuss just that. While he obviously didn't say who they're hoping to take in the draft, he did discuss the strategy behind it, and described the path of could-be future Browns players.
This offseason, the Browns have been adding free agent talent ahead of the draft, including bringing back veteran quarterback Joe Flacco.
While Flacco feels like an option that navigates the Browns away from taking a quarterback, like Colorado's Shedeur Sanders, Berry said that may not be the case.
"There is some interplay. I wouldn’t say that it’s one that drives the other, but it could influence the level of investment that you would make at a certain position once you get to April. But that being said, depending on how the draft falls, our goal and our thought process is making sure that we can add as many players that we think can be very high-quality long-term contributors. And sometimes that may not be like an apparent need or maybe like an obvious pick at the spot, but just the player was too good to pass up," Berry said.
So, the Browns could go quarterback, but there are other options on the table for them. Perhaps they find more value in a defensive weapon like Penn State's Abdul Carter.
Or, perhaps they are more inclined to take a player who has versatility on top of elite talent. That would be a player like Colorado's Travis Hunter.
Hunter, who played both wide receiver and defensive back in Boulder, wants to do that in the NFL as well.
Many have questioned if that is feasible at this level, but Berry expressed confidence in how they would be able to achieve Hunter being a two-way player if they selected him with the second pick.
"I think one of the things that is like, you can’t probably fully appreciate until you actually see Travis play live is just his elite conditioning. Like going out and seeing him play at Colorado, he really never comes off the field. And it’s unbelievable because, there are more plays in a college game than there is a pro game," Berry explained. "That being said, what he would attempt to do has not been really done in our league, but we wouldn’t necessarily put a cap or a governor in terms of, like, what he could do. You know, we would want to be smart in terms of how we started him out. I think I’ve mentioned before, we would see his first home as receiver and his second home on the defensive side of the ball.”
While he didn't want to dive too deep into plans of how Hunter could be used in Cleveland since the draft pick remains to be seen, Berry did go on to explain just how valuable Hunter's versatility could be.
And he drew a very interesting—and flattering—comparison.
"I think it’s – and I’m going to use a cross board now. It’s a little bit like [Shohei] Ohtani, right? When he’s playing one side, he’s an outstanding player, if he’s a pitcher. If he’s a hitter, he’s an outstanding player. You obviously get a unicorn if you use them both ways," Berry said of Hunter.
The Browns do know who they want to take. There's little at this point in the process that would drastically change the way they've shaped out their draft board.
But we'll all have to wait and see who that No. 2 pick is until Thursday, April 24, when the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft begins.
You can watch the NFL Draft on News 5 Cleveland. The event will start with News 5's Browns Countdown: Draft Special, which airs from 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday.
