CLEVELAND — Could the Browns have just gotten a steal in the NFL Draft?
With their final pick, the team selected Michigan wide receiver and return specialist Donovan Peoples-Jones in the sixth round (187th overall) on Saturday. Several analysts thought the 21-year-old had the skills to be taken much higher, including 3News' own Ben Axelrod.
A native of Detroit, Peoples-Jones was one of the top wideout recruits in the class of 2017, but spent much of his career in Ann Arbor as part of an inconsistent offense that struggled to find a passing game. He made third-team All-Big Ten his last two seasons, but in 2019 caught just 34 passes for 438 yards and six touchdowns while also average 7.2 yards per kick return.
Peoples-Jones declared for the draft after his junior season, and impressed scouts at the combine with the best vertical jump (44.5 inches) and broad jump (11 feet 7 inches) among receivers. His 6-foot-2 height also puts him above top Browns receivers Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr., who both stand at 5-foot-11.
Beckham and other Browns players seemed to love the pick.
Peoples-Jones is not the first Wolverine receiver to be drafted to Cleveland: The club infamously took Braylon Edwards with the third overall pick in 2005. While Edwards was named an All-Pro after catching 16 touchdowns two years later, he fell out of favor due to his dropped passes and antics, and claimed on his way out that Browns fans (many of whom also root for Ohio State) never warmed up to him because of where he played college ball (apparently forgetting about guys like Thom Darden and Steve Everitt).
Whether Peoples-Jones can perform better than Edwards is anyone's guess, but at any rate he is now the ninth receiver on Cleveland's roster. The rest of the team's picks this year are as follows:
- First round (No. 10 overall): Jedrick Wills Jr., OT, Alabama
- Second round (No. 44): Grant Delpit, S, LSU
- Third round (No. 88): Jordan Elliott, DT, Missouri
- Third round (No. 97): Jacob Phillips, LB, LSU
- Fourth round (No. 115): Harrison Bryant, TE, Florida Atlantic
- Fifth round (No. 160): Nick Harris, C, Washington
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