The Opening Drive 4/24: Names the Browns Must Consider at Pick 39

The best available for the Browns at 39 and why each of them makes sense.

(Courtesy of The University of Toledo Athletics)

The Browns had themselves a night. One of those occasions where the team’s needs fell right into their lap, they maximized value, and selected some quality talent. Spencer Fano gives them the offensive tackle they badly needed, and KC Concepcion adds a dynamic weapon to what was the worst receiving corps in the NFL last season. But the draft is often made on value picks and nailing the Day 2 selections.

We don’t have to rewind very far to notice that value considering the Browns landed the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in the early stages of last year’s 2nd round in Carson Schwesinger and then their running back of the future, who had a promising rookie season, in Quinshon Judkins. Good players are there to be found and the Browns need to nail Pick 39. Overall the Browns hold three selections in the first 75 picks but I am hyper-fixated on the quality talent remaining for their first selection of the night and the hope that they follow the board and get this one right. It’s full of talent that fits.

Below you will find who I think the Browns should be targeting based on my evaluations and what the team still needs most.

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Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, S, Toledo

Safety · 6’3” 201 lbs · 206 career tackles · 14 forced turnover last two years

McNeil-Warren is the best Group of Five prospect in this draft class, and it is not particularly close. The Toledo safety spent three years as a starter for the Rockets and compiled a career line of 206 tackles, five interceptions, and eight forced fumbles — and he did it with a style that translates immediately. At 6’3” with 32-inch arms, he is a physically imposing safety who arrives at contact with bad intentions. He consistently directed traffic in Toledo’s secondary, orchestrating coverage rotations pre-snap with a football IQ that NFL coaches universally covet. Against Kentucky in 2025, in one of the only marquee matchups of his college career, he delivered 11 tackles and a forced fumble — showing up when the moment was biggest. A shoulder injury ended his 2024 season early and caused some draft-day hesitation, but he bounced back to earn third-team AP All-America honors in 2025. The athleticism limitations — he is not a elite long-speed safety — are real, and could be put to use well in Cleveland. As a box safety and enforcer, but a player who can also play split and in the post, he is exactly what Cleveland’s secondary needs to set the tone for Mike Rutenberg’s defense.

Browns fit: Long-term anchor for the safety position with immediate starting ability. His intelligence and physicality give Cleveland a tone-setter in the back end from day one.