Dawgs By Nature
Back in April at the NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns owned the first pick in the second round, which happened to be their own.
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The Browns, New York Football Giants, and the Tennessee Titans all finished with 3-14-0 records, and through a series of tie-breakers, the Titans would pick first, followed by the Browns, and then the Giants in Round 1. In the second round, the Browns and Giants would slide up one slot with the Titans falling to the third position. Then, for the third round, New York and Tennessee would go up one spot while Cleveland would drop to three.
Starting with the fourth round, all three clubs would assume their position in the first round, and so on, alternating the first position in every round.
After the first round, Cleveland GM Andrew Berry’s phone lit up with other team general managers wanting that first pick in the second round, pick #33. That selection is often called “first round talent for second round money.”
Numerous players were still sitting on the draft board when the first round concluded. Holes on rosters still needed to be filled. And other clubs were dangling more draft picks in order to snare that first choice.
Still not selected were WRs Jayden Higgins of Iowa State and Missouri’s Luther Borden, Ohio State RBs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, QB Shedeur Sanders of Colorado, DT T.J. Sanders, and S Nick Emmanwori, both from South Carolina, along with OTs Aireontae Ersery from Minnesota and North Carolina State’s Anthony Belton.
The surprise came when Berry, who is known for making trades, kept the pick. After filling out the draft pick card, at the draft podium, it was heard:
“With the 33rd pick in the 2025 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns select Carson Schwesinger, linebacker, USC.”
The broadcast cameras panned to Browns’ fans at the event. At first, everyone on-screen looked like a deer in headlights, like, what? Who? Then, noticing the red light on top of the camera, each Clevelander broke out into that fake celebratory hysteria.
Carson who? He plays what again, linebacker? A guy from sunny California? Is coming here? Where most likely he has never experienced snow?
And besides, Berry selected a defensive tackle in the first round, and yet, here is another defender? It is the offense that needs the most help. Plus, we hoped/assumed Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah would return, the middle was manned by a tackling machine in Jordan Hicks, and Devin Bush had a rebound year in 2024. What in the heck do we need another linebacker for?
Going into training camp, nobody was talking about Schwesinger, even though he was the second player selected in the draft by the Browns and had good measurements of 6’-3” and a beefy 242 pounds. That frame harkened back to the 1980s when guys like Harry Carson and Mike Singletary were all really big dudes who had good short area bursts but couldn’t give much as a...
