CLEVELAND -- Having constructed rosters that would go on to amass a 1-31 record from 2016-17, Sashi Brown lost his job as the Cleveland Browns' general manager last December.
Brown's impact in Cleveland, however, is still very much being felt, as evidenced by the war chest of assets the Browns' enter the 2018 NFL Draft with.
With four picks in the top-35 -- including two in the first four -- the Browns will hear their names called early and often in Arlington, Texas, this April. In total, Cleveland lays claim to 12 overall picks, seven of which will come in the first 108 selections.
According to one advanced analytics site, that's good for the "most draft capital of any team in the modern era," which dates back to 1993.
The foundation of draft commodity dates back Jimmy Johnson draft values, but the concept of “draft points” is based on Chase Stewart’s model from 2012 which assigned point value to each draft pick using a more analytical approach.
The Browns’ sum of 117.5 draft points is 162% above the NFL average, which is a mere 44.8 draft points. Draft points are top-heavy in weighting, which is because historically, so are NFL players: those players drafted in the first two rounds are far more likely to produce in the NFL respective to draft position than those drafted in the last two rounds.
Following the same model, the Browns' current collection of draft assets represents the third-most draft capital dating back to 1970, with only the 1991 Dallas Cowboys and 1982 New England Patriots having possessed more.
Of course, as Brown learned, there's more to running a successful football team than merely collecting draft picks --- you also have to make the right selections. And that's perhaps the biggest reason why it will be new Cleveland general manager John Dorsey who ultimately benefits from his predecessor's historic hauls.
