Trade rumors have been swirling around Cleveland Browns cornerback Greg Newsome, prompting fellow corner Denzel Ward to recently plead for the Browns to hold on to him.
Well, it looks like Ward is getting some good news.
While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry seemed to indicate that the Browns are not looking to move Newsome.
“Nothing new on that,” Berry said when asked about a potential Newsome trade, via the team’s official YouTube account. “I want as many good corners as possible. We have, going back to my point about the league playing in 11 personnel, your base offense and defense is really more three receivers in three corners in this day and age. So that’s really how we think about it. Even though we are technically a 4-3 (defense). We have three guys who can play press man coverage at a very, very, very high level. That’s not a skill set that I’m looking to give away.”
So it appears that Ward has nothing to worry about: his friend probably won’t be getting dealt.
Of course, a lot of the time, it makes sense to trade from a position of strength, especially when you have other needs on your roster. A trade then becomes even more applicable when the NFL Draft is less than a week away.
However, in other instances, you want extra depth at a certain position. Cornerback is one of those spots, particularly in the pass-happy modern NFL.
Newsome is coming off of a 2023 campaign in which he played 14 games and registered 49 tackles, a half of a sack, a couple of interceptions, 14 passes defended and a defensive touchdown.
The 23-year-old, who played his collegiate football at Northwestern, was selected by the Browns with the 26th overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Newsome’s main issue thus far has been staying healthy, as he is yet to play a full season. He topped out at 15 games in 2022.
We’ll see if Newsome is in a Browns uniform come September, and if he is, hopefully, he can remain on the field.
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