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With the 2nd overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns will have the opportunity to make a selection that will potentially set the franchise on a new course. Conventional wisdom would say that the quickest way to start a franchise overhaul would be for a team in Cleveland's position to find their quarterback of the future. After all, nobody in Northeast Ohio would mistake Deshaun Watson or a recently acquired Kenny Pickett as such.
That presumably opens the door for either Miami's Cam Ward or Colorado's Shedeur Sanders to end up being the 2nd overall pick, and while many NFL Draft analysts do indeed have the Browns taking either Ward or Sanders with that pick, it's by no means a certainty that this is the way that things will play out.
ESPN's Field Yates sees the Browns passing on the option of selecting a quarterback with their 1st round selection, and instead taking Sanders' Colorado teammate, Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter with the 2nd overall pick.
“The Browns bypass the quarterback class here,” Yates predicts. “Instead, they can take the highest-rated player on my board. Hunter has a credible path to becoming a Pro Bowl player at either receiver or cornerback. Cleveland GM Andrew Berry has already stated that the team views him more as a receiving prospect, and he would give the Browns a dynamic playmaker for whoever is at quarterback. This team needs building blocks, and Hunter fits that bill.”
If the Browns were to select Hunter and suffer through one more season without their long-term answer at starting quarterback, they could very well find themselves in a similar position next year… with a chance to take their next starting quarterback and face of the franchise with a high pick in the NFL Draft. The 2026 quarterback class — with potential high-upside options such as Arch Manning, Garrett Nussmeier, Drew Allar, Nico Iamaleava, Cade Klubnik, LaNorris Sellers and Carson Beck — offers a much more intriguing crop of options than the 2025 class does.
