{"id":269679,"date":"2026-03-19T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=269679"},"modified":"2026-03-18T21:15:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:15:34","slug":"browns-mock-draft-has-team-landing-first-round-wide-receiver-and-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/03\/19\/browns-mock-draft-has-team-landing-first-round-wide-receiver-and-quarterback\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns Mock Draft Has Team Landing First-Round Wide Receiver and Quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who will the Cleveland Browns take with their two first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft? Ethan Wood<\/a> of NFLTradeRumors.com put together a Browns mock draft. He has the team selecting Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate (sixth overall) and Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson<\/a> (No. 24).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c6 – Cleveland <\/strong><\/span>Browns: Ohio State WR Carnell Tate<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Browns are another team open to trading down, but they need a receiver badly. Tate feels like the favorite to be the first receiver taken and he would immediately be Cleveland’s top option on the outside. A silky-smooth route runner with insane body control and toughness at the catch point, he’ll make life easier for whoever his quarterback is.<\/span><\/p>\n

24 – Browns (via JAX): Alabama QB Ty Simpson<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Browns have a lot of unappealing options at quarterback right now, and they’ve sniffed around bringing in a new passer. Simpson is probably going to end up a first-round pick due to positional demand, and Cleveland is as likely a landing spot as any.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Browns Mock Draft Has Team Landing Carnell Tate and Ty Simpson<\/h2>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Carnell Tate\u2019s Career Thus Far<\/h3>\n

Coming out of high school, Carnell Tate was a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 22 prospect in the nation. Impressively, he received 37 scholarships from schools such as Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, and Tennessee. He ultimately committed<\/a> to Ohio State.<\/sup><\/p>\n

Tate finished his freshman year with 18 receptions for 264 yards and a touchdown. His freshman stats were better than frosh year totals of other Ohio State legends like Marvin Harrison Jr.<\/a> (11 in 2021), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (10 in 2020), and Emeka Egbuka<\/a> (zero in 2021).<\/p>\n

During the 2024 season, Tate started all 15 games, recording 52 receptions for 733 yards and four touchdowns. He also helped lead the Buckeyes to a national championship, beating Notre Dame 34-23 in the title game.<\/p>\n

Tate caught 51 passes for 875 yards and nine touchdowns this past season. Ohio State made the College Football Playoff, but lost to Miami in the quarterfinals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ty Simpson\u2019s Career<\/h3>\n

Simpson was rated a five-star recruit coming out of high school. He received college offers from schools like Clemson, Tennessee, and Ole Miss. He wound up committing to Alabama.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Simpson redshirted his freshman season at Alabama. Bryce Young<\/a> was the starter that year. Simpson then served as a backup the following two years.<\/p>\n

Simpson was named<\/a> the Crimson Tide\u2019s starting quarterback in 2025. This past season, he threw for 3,567 yards, 28 touchdowns, and five interceptions while completing 64.5 percent of his passes. Simpson had several big-time games like his 382-yard, four-touchdown performance against Wisconsin. He also threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns versus Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n

Simpson led Alabama to an appearance in the SEC championship and earned a 34-24 win over Oklahoma in the first round of the College Football Playoff. However, they lost 38-3 to Fernando Mendoza\u2019s<\/a> Indiana Hoosiers in the Rose Bowl.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Simpson later opted to enter the 2026 NFL Draft <\/a>over returning to Alabama \u2013 or entering the Transfer Portal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do Tate and Simpson Make Sense?<\/h3>\n

Last season, the Browns\u2019 best wide receiver, Jerry<\/span> Jeudy, only caught 50 passes for <\/span>602 yards and two touchdowns. That was a major drop from his 2024 Pro Bowl season in which he recorded 90 receptions and 1,229 yards.<\/p>\n

Cleveland\u2019s receiver room combined for just 1,467 receiving yards, which was the worst in the NFL. Needless to say, the team needs an upgrade at the position. Carnell Tate is considered the top receiver prospect in the draft. So yes, it makes perfect sense for Cleveland to take him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Browns\u2019 quarterback room includes second-year pros Shedeur Sanders<\/a> and Dillon Gabriel, along with veteran Deshaun Watson. While Sanders has potential, he hasn\u2019t shown that he is the leader to be QB1. With that said, it wouldn\u2019t hurt to give Ty Simpson a shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Image: Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a Cleveland Browns mock draft, the team selects both wide receiver Carnell Tate and quarterback Ty Simpson in the first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":265593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33761,8,1647,6431],"tags":[33533,33894,7809,33795],"class_list":["post-269679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mock-drafts","category-browns","category-nfl-draft","category-nfl-teams","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-carnell-tate","tag-cleveland-browns-news","tag-ty-simpson"],"modified_by":"Mike Roberts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269679"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269744,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269679\/revisions\/269744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}