New Cleveland Browns general manager John Dorsey is certainly attempting to put his own stamp on the team as not only did he orchestrate three separate trades on Friday that resulted in his new team acquiring wide receiver Jarvis Landry, quarterback Tyrod Taylor and cornerback Damarious Randall in exchange for several draft picks and quarterback DeShone Kizer, he’s now reportedly traded away another former first-round draft pick, defensive tackle Danny Shelton, to the New England Patriots on Saturday.
According to Adam Schefter and Field Yates of ESPN, the Browns traded Shelton and a 2018 fifth-round draft pick to the Patriots in exchange for New England’s 2019 third-round selection. It’s the fourth trade the Browns have made now in less than 24 hours.
Shelton, a 6-2, 335-pound defensive tackle out of Washington, was selected 12th overall in the 2015 NFL Draft by the Browns. In his first three NFL seasons with Cleveland he registered 128 total tackles and 1.5 sacks in 46 games played.
The Patriots certainly need a two-gapping capable run defender in their defense after reportedly recently informing veteran defensive tackle Alan Branch that they had no intentions of picking up his $1 million option for the 2018 season. The Patriots now must decide whether or not to pick up Shelton’s fifth-year option for the 2019 season over the course of the next few weeks and odds are good that they will.
While the Pittsburgh Steelers no longer have to worry about facing Shelton twice in 2018 as a member of the Browns, they’ll still likely face him once during the regular season as the Patriots will play Pittsburgh during the regular season once again. In the six regular season games that Shelton has already played in against the Steelers he has registered just 10 total tackles.
