When the 2021 NFL season ended, almost every media member and fan had tagged the Cleveland Browns for taking a wide receiver early in the 2022 NFL draft. Then the team traded for Amari Cooper but released Jarvis Landry. The assumption of an early receiver remained.
The trade for Deshaun Watson cost the team their first-round pick, as well as multiple other picks, but it was still assumed that the team would draft a receiver early. Most mock drafts focused around George Pickens, Skyy Moore, Alec Pierce or a number of other pass catchers.
Instead, Cleveland waited until their last pick in the third round to draft David Bell out of Purdue. While Bell played outside a lot in college, the expectation is that he will play as a bigger slot receiver at the pro level.
