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Andrew Berry, general manager of the Cleveland Browns.

The Cleveland Browns are making changes to their roster ahead of draft day. Among other things, they have made two trades with NFC teams within three days to fill the team’s draft coffers.

Cleveland recently traded defensive tackle Chris Williams to the Chicago Bears in a third-day pick swap in 2025.

“We have agreed to trade DT Chris Williams and a 2025 seventh-round pick to the Bears in exchange for a 2025 sixth-round pick,” Cleveland posted on its official X account on Saturday, August 24.

The deal followed a trade two days earlier in which the Browns sent kicker and 2022 fourth-round pick Cade York to the Washington Commanders in exchange for a conditional seventh-round selection in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Browns have blown up three draft classes with Deshaun Watson trade

GettyCleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Cleveland has had fewer draft picks than many of its opponents over the past few offseasons due to a deal the team made with the Houston Texans in March 2022 to sign quarterback Deshaun Watson.

The Browns sent the Texans three first-round picks (2022, 23, 24), a third-round pick in 2023 and two fourth-round picks (2022, 24) before guaranteeing Watson’s entire $230 million contract over five years. Watson has played in just 12 games in the first two seasons of that contract and hasn’t performed particularly well in the moments he’s been on the field.

Both the Watson trade package and the follow-up contract may be considered the worst of their kind in modern NFL history in terms of value for money. Taken together, however, the deal is undoubtedly one of the most disastrous of all time.

In contrast, general manager Andrew Berry and his team are currently building back-end assets to use cheap rookie contracts to add talent and depth to a roster that is already one of the most expensive in the league and will likely only get more expensive in the coming years.

Browns are equipped with draft assets in 2025 compared to recent years

GettyDT Chris Williams, formerly of the Cleveland Browns, sacks quarterback Matt Corral of the Minnesota Vikings.

The impact of Cleveland’s strategy change may not be massive considering they added two Day 3 picks. Still, the assets are still valuable as the Browns can either find a developmental player or two in later rounds or put those extra picks into trades for bigger, more established names.

The Browns’ list of 2025 draft picks looks very different from the paltry compilations they’ve had to work with in recent seasons. As of Sunday, Cleveland’s 2025 selections were as follows:

• 1st Round — (1) Own
• 2nd Round — (1) Own
• 3rd Round — (1) Own
• 4th Round — (1) Own
• 6th round — (4) Own, via Lions via Donovan Peoples-Jones trade, via Vikings via Za’Darius Smith trade, via Bears via Williams trade
• Round 7 — (1) Via Commanders through York trade, provided York plays at least two games

Williams has played in just 13 games in his three-year career, all in 2021 and 2022 for the Indianapolis Colts. He spent last season on the Browns’ practice squad but was not on track to play a significant role for Cleveland in 2024 – if at all.

Despite being drafted in the fourth round just two years ago, York lost his job with the Browns to Dustin Hopkins before the 2023 season and failed to dethrone Hopkins this summer.

Considering that neither Williams nor York are expected to play for the Browns this season, Cleveland did well to upgrade from a seventh-round pick to a sixth-round pick with the Williams trade and then conditionally replace that seventh-round selection with the York trade.

Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, focusing on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and national news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and was news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible