The Browns double-dipped on talented young wideouts in the first two rounds of the draft. They selected KC Concepcion at pick 24, and Denzel Boston (pictured) just half a round later (pick 39). Surely, one of those guys will pan out.
Cleveland last year had the league's sorriest wide receiver group, failing to put even one player at the position in the top 50 in PPR leagues. There are 32 NFL teams last I checked, which indicates a majority of the league had 2 wideouts perform better than Cleveland's No. 1. It's not the only year that's happened lately.
Since 2020, the Browns have had a total of three wide receivers rank in the top 30 at the position: Amari Cooper twice, and Jerry Jeudy once. Cooper is the only one to catch more than 4 TDs in a season, which is hard to believe. With Jeudy, as some will recall, he was actually pretty quiet for most of the season, blowing up over a 7-game stretch with Jameis Winston at quarterback (one 235-yard game helps a lot). Table shows Cleveland's top wideouts each year since 2020, with players who finished in the top 30 at the position in bold.
| CLEVELAND WIDEOUTS, 2020-2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | TD | Rk |
| 2020 | Jarvis Landry | 101 | 72 | 840 | 4 | 33 |
| 2020 | Rashard Higgins | 52 | 37 | 599 | 4 | 63 |
| 2020 | Odell Beckham | 43 | 23 | 319 | 4 | 92 |
| 2021 | Jarvis Landry | 87 | 52 | 570 | 4 | 52 |
| 2021 | Donovan Peoples-Jones | 58 | 34 | 597 | 3 | 63 |
| 2021 | Rashard Higgins | 47 | 24 | 275 | 1 | 114 |
| 2022 | Amari Cooper | 132 | 78 | 1160 | 9 | 10 |
| 2022 | Donovan Peoples-Jones | 96 | 61 | 839 | 4 | 38 |
| 2022 | David Bell | 35 | 24 | 214 | 0 | 121 |
| 2022 | Anthony Schwartz | 10 | 4 | 51 | 1 | 147 |
| 2023 | Amari Cooper | 128 | 72 | 1250 | 5 | 20 |
| 2023 | Elijah Moore | 104 | 59 | 640 | 2 | 52 |
| 2023 | David Bell | 23 | 14 | 167 | 3 | 114 |
| 2023 | Cedric Tillman | 44 | 21 | 224 | 0 | 118 |
| 2024 | Jerry Jeudy | 145 | 90 | 1229 | 4 | 13 |
| 2024 | Elijah Moore | 102 | 61 | 538 | 1 | 67 |
| 2024 | Cedric Tillman | 49 | 29 | 339 | 3 | 90 |
| 2025 | Jerry Jeudy | 106 | 50 | 602 | 2 | 52 |
| 2025 | Cedric Tillman | 39 | 21 | 270 | 2 | 99 |
| 2025 | Isaiah Bond | 44 | 18 | 338 | 0 | 104 |
That brings us to Concepcion and Boston. With Concepcion, Ian Allan posted an article about him recently, noting his struggles with drops the last two seasons. Ironically enough, Jeudy leads the NFL with 23 drops over the past two seasons. So if there's ever been a case where you hoped a veteran player wouldn't be showing a rookie the ropes, this is it.
But as Ian's item pointed out, three of the other most drop-prone college receivers drafted in the first two rounds in recent years -- Zay Flowers, Christian Watson, Quentin Johnston -- have not had problems in that area in the pros. So with Concepcion, it makes more sense to worry about lesser quarterbacking in Cleveland (which has certainly been a factor in their underperforming wideouts) than that drop history.
I am intrigued by the Boston pick. He's a lot bigger than Concepcion (6-4, 212 versus 5-11, 196) and with a lot of ability to work the middle of the field and make contested catches. Could emerge as a trusted target for whoever starts the most at quarterback.
Ultimately, I'm intrigued by both wideouts in my dynasty league, though I have to grudgingly accept that maybe they can only do so much. Either Deshaun Watson (on the shelf nearly two years) or Shedeur Sanders (57 percent completions last year) will be the quarterback in Cleveland. Maybe that's the real problem, and one that won't be solved until 2027.
As for 2026, I suspect Harold Fannin is the only Brown I'll likely be drafting.
--Andy Richardson
