Browns make a haul

By Tony Grossi

Cleveland Plain Dealer

BEREA

Yo-yo’ing down and then up with two major trades, the Browns wrapped up their first day of the draft with mammoth defensive tackle Phil Taylor of Baylor and four additional draft picks.

For a month, the Browns had talked of hoping to trade down. Trading up was considered ‘unlikely,’ but general manager Tom Heckert wound up doing both.

First they swapped the sixth pick in the first round to the Atlanta Falcons, who used it on Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones. After seeing top prospects Von Miller, Marcell Dareus, A.J. Green and Patrick Peterson plucked off the board at Nos. 2 to 5, the Browns accepted Atlanta’s offer of five picks — their first-, second-, and fourth-round selections this year and first- and fourth-round picks in 2012 — rather than Jones.

“We talked about if we thought something was really, really intriguing to us and we could add players, we would do it,” Heckert said. “We’re not saying we’re one player away. We thought it was too much to turn down.”

For about two hours, the Browns watched seven defensive linemen be picked. After Tampa Bay chose Adrian Clayborn of Iowa, Heckert pulled off another trade with Kansas City. He gave the Chiefs the 27th pick acquired from Atlanta and the Browns’ third-round selection, No. 70 overall, for the 21st spot and used it on Taylor.

At 6-31/2 and 337 pounds, Taylor is one of the heaviest players in the draft. Originally enrolled at Penn State, he was involved in a fight at a fraternity and dismissed from the school after his second year. Taylor transferred to Baylor, sat out 2008 and started at tackle his last two seasons.

“I don’t think it was a [character] concern,” Taylor said, speaking from NFL draft headquarters in New York. “I was young, made a mistake and learned from it. I moved on to Baylor and made the best of my second chance.”

Heckert said he was “100 percent confident’”Taylor does not have a character problem. Taylor was considered the best nose tackle prospect in the draft, the middle position in the three-man alignment the Browns have scrapped, though he played exclusively in four-man fronts in college. He will line up on either side of Ahtyba Rubin, giving the Browns’ new, four-man front a formidable interior on running downs. But Taylor will come out on passing downs.

“When you’re putting together a 4-3 line, to have two big bodies inside is going to be good for us,” said coach Pat Shurmur.

Taylor compared himself to Casey Hampton of the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I stop the run, man,” Taylor said, “And I can give you a good pass rush as well.”

Draft publications ripped Taylor for struggling to keep his weight down and having fatigue problems. When properly motivated, they praised him as run-stopper who is “a terror to block.”

“We really like Phil Taylor,” Heckert said. “We think with him and Rubin, we’re going to be tough inside.”

Late in the draft process, a rumor surfaced that Taylor had an unusual foot condition in which bones were growing together. But X-rays dispelled the rumor and he was given a clean bill of health.

“Just rumors, that’s all it was,” he said. “A couple of teams later [in the draft] threw some things out there so they might be able to get me.”

Taylor said he wasn’t surprised the Browns took him after his agent informed him they had traded for Kansas City’s spot at No. 21.

Moving 21 spots down is the most the Browns ever have dropped in a first round without trading out of the round entirely.