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The Cleveland Browns are not scheduled to pick in the 2023 NFL draft until the third round, but the team’s assistant general managers Glenn Cook and Catherine Raiche told Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot that they’re still looking forward to watching the first two rounds as fans and they’re prepared when their time does come in round three and beyond.
Assistant GM Glenn Cook Is Excited to Watch the Draft as a Fan
Ahead of the NFL draft, the Browns volunteered at Mayfair Elementary School in East Cleveland as part of their Stay in the Game initiative, and that is where the assistant GMs spoke with Cabot about how they plan to spend their time during the first two rounds of the draft.
Glenn Cook told Cabot that he’s actually looking forward to “get[ting] to be a fan” while watching the first two rounds.
“We all grew up watching the draft and the combine and sometimes when we’ve been picking in the first round, you’re so locked in on your pick that you don’t kind of enjoy just watching it play out,” said Cook, adding, “This is really fun, actually. I’ll get to be a fan, so I don’t know where I’ll be watching it from but it seems like the top of the draft this year is going to be pretty interesting, so I’ll definitely be watching.”
“Honestly, it’s kind of fun being a fan too, right?” he added, saying that having to wait until pick No. 74 doesn’t take away from the excitement of the draft.
“We put a lot of work in knowing that we’re going to have to wait around a little bit to see how it plays out. No, it doesn’t take [the excitement] away. Being able to potentially add players to the team who can make us better and put us in a better position to compete, it’s always fun across the draft. That’s the job. Regardless of what picks we have, we’re just as intentional about being prepared and trying to find the right guy, the right pick for us as if we had higher picks,” said Cook.
Assistant GM Catherine Raiche Added That the Browns Have Left ‘No Stone Unturned’ in Terms of Draft Preparation
Assistant GM Catherine Raiche also spoke to Cabot and she said that it’s really striking how much preparation the Browns have been doing.
“(We’re) leaving no stone unturned and that’s the biggest thing for me. It’s just really seeing how every single prospect, the work that’s done on every single one of them from all these different perspectives, whether it’s character, medical or on-field,” said Raiche.
“We’re in a little bit more of a reactionary position,” added Cook. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen 73 picks before you. I think we’ll kind of reset once day one is finished and kind of assess what it looks like because sometimes it doesn’t play out how you guess it will.”
Cook also recently appeared on the Best Podcast Available where he talked about the Browns’ offseason moves and how they are trying “to be as talented as [they] can be” up and down the roster.
“The first thing we do is kind of try to step back, look at our own team … you kind of want to zoom out and be as objective and honest with yourself as possible and say, ‘Hey, what do we need to get better? What do we need to make some improvements if we’re trying to make the playoffs and compete for championships?’ So we kind of started there, really assessed who we are, who we were and where we want to go,” said Cook.
He added, “Honestly, we were just trying to acquire really good guys. You don’t want to overthink and be too myopic in the sense that ‘we need this position’ and ‘we need this player.’ Sometimes, you want to be as talented as you can as well. That’s how it played out,” said Cook.
The 2023 NFL Draft airs live from Thursday, April 27 to Saturday, April 29 on ABC, ESPN, ESPN Deportes and the NFL Network. On Thursday and Friday, ABC and ESPN will have different coverage, then on Saturday, it will be a simulcast.
The schedule is as follows:
Round 1 airs on Thursday, April 27 beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time on ABC, ESPN, the ESPN App, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, and the NFL Network.
Rounds 2 & 3 air on Friday, April 28 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern on ABC, ESPN, the ESPN App, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, and the NFL Network.
Rounds 4 through 7 air on Saturday, April 29 beginning at noon Eastern on ESPN with ABC simulcast, the ESPN App, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, and the NFL Network.