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Bengals: Every AFC North team’s best value pick in the 2021 NFL Draft

By Leigh Oleszczak

CLEVELAND, OHIO - MAY 01: Fans waiting for Machine Gun Kelly to perform onstage after the final round of the 2021 NFL Draft at the Great Lakes Science Center on May 01, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Duane Prokop/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OHIO - MAY 01: Fans waiting for Machine Gun Kelly to perform onstage after the final round of the 2021 NFL Draft at the Great Lakes Science Center on May 01, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Duane Prokop/Getty Images) /
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Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah #6 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

While Bengals fans were obviously paying attention to who their team selected in the 2021 NFL Draft, they were also closely eyeing who their divisional rivals added through the draft. The Bengals had a good draft and arguably had the second-best draft out of the AFC North but the other three teams landed themselves some really good players.

Value picks are players who had a decent draft grade but might have slipped a few rounds where a team happily scooped them up. That’s what we’ll be looking at in this post for each AFC North team. We’ll start with the team who had not only the best draft in the AFC North but one of the best drafts in the league.

Best value picks for Bengals rivals – Cleveland Browns: Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah

I was really impressed with what the Browns were able to do in this draft. It was surprising that Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah fell to the second round despite being a top-rated player on many big boards and the reasoning behind that seems to be that teams were worried about his heart condition.

The new Browns linebacker went on the Jim Rome Show after the draft, however, and said “There were really no heart issues at all.” Teams were clearly worried about it despite what Owusu-Koramoah had to say afterward and that allowed Cleveland to snatch him up with the No. 52 pick.

Cleveland’s defense was the No. 21 ranked unit in the league last year and they knew they needed to get better in the draft. Landing Owusu-Koramoah gives them a guy capable of playing both linebacker and safety, which is a nice option to have.