Since the Cleveland Browns returned to the NFL for the 1999 season, the draft has held a high significance for both the team as well as for the fans in Cleveland and Browns fans far and wide.

Since that '99 season, the Browns have looked to the draft to find both key starters and reserves. That trend started with the expansion Browns' first pick in that year's draft, QB Tim Couch of Kentucky. The circumstances that caused players like Couch, as well as other highly paid draftees like Courtney Brown (1st round, 2000) and Gerard Warren (1st Round, 2001) to fail to pan out as projected in Cleveland set the team back immeasurably.

However, this season's draft has been quite different than past drafts. For starters, 2008 marked the first season in 18 years that the Browns did not have a first-round pick. 2008 was also the first NFL draft that the Browns didn't even have a pick on the draft's first day.

It is a telling sign of how much improved the Browns have become that despite such a dearth of draft picks in 2008, the team is expected to win this year and contend for a playoff berth, coming off a suprise 10-6 season a year ago. 

Much credit has to go to the team's management for its ability to better assess talent in recent years than it did in the early days of the "New" Browns. Recent top draft picks such as WR Braylon Edwards (1st Round, 2005) and TE Kellen Winslow (1st Round, 2004) have more than caught on with the team, becoming elite talents in the league at their respective positions. Credit management as well for finding not just one but two possible franchise quarterbacks in Derek Anderson (Claimed off waivers from Baltimore, 9/21/05) and Brady Quinn (1st Round, 2007).

Now it just remains to be seen whether the Browns can carry their 2007 momentum into '08.