{"id":870769,"date":"2026-04-20T19:18:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870769\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:18:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:18:37","slug":"steelers-browns-draft-trade-prediction-lands-broderick-jones-replacement-for-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870769\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers-Browns draft trade prediction lands Broderick Jones replacement for Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you think about possible trades during the 2026 NFL Draft, the last one anyone would predict is a deal between the Cleveland Browns<\/a> and Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But NBC Sports’ Chris Simms is feeling frisky just days ahead of the three-day event and is predicting the AFC North rivals will strike a first-round trade.<\/p>\n

In his mock draft, Simms has the Steelers trading back three spots<\/a> from No. 21 to No. 24 with the Browns.<\/p>\n

With their new picks, the Steelers take offensive tackle Spencer Fano while the Browns land wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr.<\/p>\n

Suspending reality for a second, this trade does make sense for both teams.<\/p>\n

Why this trade makes sense for Browns<\/p>\n

The Browns are lacking reliable options at wide receiver going into 2026.<\/p>\n

Jerry Jeudy has shown flashes of having elite ability, but he has also proven inconsistent with drops<\/a> and up-and-down production overall.<\/p>\n

Cleveland’s projected No. 2 wide receiver, Cedric Tillman, remains unproven and has had issues staying healthy, and the completely unproven Isaiah Bond is slated to be the team’s No. 3 wide receiver.<\/p>\n

That is not an ideal situation for the Browns, especially if they start a young quarterback in Shedeur Sanders.<\/p>\n

Adding Cooper, whose stock has risen through the pre-draft process<\/a>, gives the Browns some much-needed depth and a potential starter from Day 1.<\/p>\n

Why this trade makes sense for Steelers<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh recently got bad news at left tackle, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting that\u00a0Broderick Jones has suffered a setback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jones came down with a neck injury last season and had to have surgery. Now, his status for Week 1 is up in the air.<\/p>\n

Jones was already on shaky ground, though, as the former first-round pick has struggled over three years in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Fano is widely viewed as a top-five tackle is this year’s draft class<\/a> and could step in and fill the void for Jones and be a long-term solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you think about possible trades during the 2026 NFL Draft, the last one anyone would predict is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-870769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116438652736788504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}