The Cleveland Browns considered two potential trades with the No. 6 pick in April's NFL draft before taking pass-rusher Barkevious Mingo, and would have traded the pick if Mingo had not been available, according to Grantland's Chuck Klosterman. As detailed by NFL.com's Gregg Rosenthal, the Browns were prepared to trade the selection to the St. Louis Rams for the No. 16 pick, a second-round pick, and a seventh-round selection.
Browns reportedly would have traded down if Barkevious Mingo wasn’t available
The LSU defensive end was Cleveland’s target all along, but Browns likely would have moved down if he was already gone.
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The Browns also received an intriguing offer from a “mystery team” that would have packaged a second-round pick, two future first-round picks, and two other future selections for Cleveland’s spot. Speculation on the origin of the blockbuster trade centered on San Francisco.
As Klosterman reports, the Browns had targeted Mingo as their top selection all along but went to extraordinary lengths to conceal their intentions, going so far as to erase Mingo’s name from a draft board before an IT employee entered the draft room to repair an internet connection. “I’ve never witnessed this level of institutional paranoia within a universe so devoid of actual secrets,” Klosterman writes.
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