Cleveland Browns: Possible trade targets in the 2020 NFL Draft

To me, Xavier McKinney is head and shoulders the best safety prospect in the 2020 NFL Draft. This guy does everything, not completely dissimilar to Isaiah Simmons as mentioned before. Even after bringing in two free-agent safeties, the Cleveland Browns will likely be in the market for a safety in the draft and McKinney should be at the top of the list.

McKinney has a very similar junior season stat line to Simmons before entering the 2020 NFL Draft. in 2019, McKinney posted 95 tackles, 5.5 for loss, three sacks, three interceptions (including a pick-six), five pass break-ups and four forced fumbles.

As a split safety, McKinney has the instincts and athleticism to play deep in zone coverage and the physicality and tackling ability to play around the line of scrimmage in the run game. He is also very capable against receivers and tight ends in man coverage in the slot and is also a very effective blitzer on passing downs as well.

McKinney seems like the perfect player alongside Karl Joseph. Joseph is also capable of playing deep but is best around the line of scrimmage. McKinney is likely best suited as more of a free safety who can come up around the line on occasion. They would complement each other very well and McKinney can play nickel if they want their other free agent acquisition, Andrew Sendejo, to play as well.

It’s a bit of a mystery where McKinney will come off the board in the 2020 NFL Draft at this point. Most do view him as the top safety in the draft, but it’s still unclear how high a safety will go. In recent years, it seems that top safeties have gone a little later than they probably should have just because of the way teams value the position.

McKinney might be the next casualty of seeing his stock drop lower than it should, with some mocks having the first round without a safety. If McKinney begins to fall into the 20s, the Cleveland Browns should absolutely think about moving back up into the first round to take him.

Tackle at 10 and safety at 41 seems like a popular combo for the Browns in a lot of mocks. If they can give up something reasonable to move up from 41 to, say, 22 to jump the New England Patriots, I would be all about it.