Since the end of the 2015 season, the Cleveland Browns have released their highest-paid wideout and watched their most effective wide receiver sign with the San Diego Chargers.
With Dwayne Bowe and Travis Benjamin out of the picture, new coach Hue Jackson is left with Brian Hartline, Andrew Hawkins and Taylor Gabriel as the headliners of an underwhelming wide receiver corps.
"It's an area we need to address, obviously," Jackson said last week, via the team's official website. "I've gone on record before saying that I like to have bigger, faster guys play the position."
Executive vice president Sashi Brown expressed a similar sentiment, acknowledging the Browns' roster is lacking in big, physical receivers capable of making contested catches and moving the chains on third downs.
An already shallow free-agent class has been picked clean, save for the speed-challenged duo of Anquan Boldin and James Jones.
Unless Josh Gordon is reinstated from indefinite suspension in the next month, the Browns will have to address the position in the early rounds of the draft.
In his latest five-round mock draft, Chad Reuter of College Fotoball 24/7 has the Browns selecting Oklahoma's Sterling Shepard at No. 32 overall and Rutgers' Leonte Carroo at No. 65, with the second pick of the third round.
