With their playoff dreams crushed, the Cleveland Browns can focus on their next chapter. With the 2025 NFL Draft fast approaching, the team will have to decide how to make the most of their second overall pick, and Dan Orlovsky has some advice for them.
The 2025 season was a nightmare for the Browns. The team finished 3-14 and last place in the AFC North. What’s more, their star quarterback, Deshaun Watson, injured his Achilles tendon not once but twice, the most recent just on Friday, meaning he will miss the entire 2025 season.
In light of this, Orlovsky recommended the team skip the 2025 quarterback class altogether. According to the former Detroit Lions quarterback, the best use the Browns could make of that pick is as a trade chip for an experienced quarterback, and he even floated the name of the ideal candidate.
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A blockbuster swap
In an ESPN collaboration, the quarterback-turned-analyst advised the Browns to talk to the Minnesota Vikings and offer them their second overall pick and/or linebacker Myles Garrett, in exchange for star quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
“They [Cleveland] are $63 million in the red for next year’s cap,” Orlovsky recalled. “So you’re not replacing the quarterback position with something expensive. You have to find a cheap manner,” the analyst warned.
On that, Orlovsky recalled, “The only two assets that are worth a lot that the Cleveland Browns have are the No. 2 pick and Myles Garrett.”
The former quarterback predicted that the Browns would think the same thing sooner or later and end up calling the Vikings to ask about McCarthy, “Because he’s cheap. It depends on if they liked him coming out of college last year and having a conversation around Myles Garrett and/or that No. 2 draft pick.”
Is a trade possible?
Most analysts believe Cleveland will go for Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders in the 2025 Draft. However, if they wanted to try Orlovsky’s idea, McCarthy would enter the second of four years of his rookie contract with Minnesota, worth $21.9 million.
Garrett, meanwhile, is about to finish the six-year, $125 million contract he signed with the Browns in 2020. He has already said he would prefer to let his contract expire and sign with a contending team. Cleveland could take advantage of the opportunity and trade its star player for its quarterback of the future.