Gregory Shamus/Getty Images via Washington Post

When reacting to the Cleveland Browns, Northeast Ohioans can exhibit schizophrenia. They can react with antagonistic concern and deep doubt. Mostly, though, people attempt to behave and respond in an intelligently and with understanding .

We may appear crazy—take a bow Pumpkin Head, the Browns on-stage “fan presence” for the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft held in Cleveland—but no one would mistake us for a New York or Philadelphia audience. We would bore the tabloids.

The football media in these parts is not, for the most part, inclined to rashness and rudeness. It questions the questionable but usually in a civil tone, not the full-throated scream that can emanate from the Dawg Pound.

When the draft results come in each year, there may be moans and groans but the Browns audience usually gives the work the benefit of the doubt, searching for the scraps of good that can be found among even the detritus of a poor draft. We have been known to harrumph a bit, but we usually reserve the sharp sticks for our own eyes.

We may be borderline lunatics when it comes to football, but we are not shrill. This year presents no need to be, unless it is to underline the nearly unanimous praise that has come in for the manner in which General Manager Andrew Berry, Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, and Coach Kevin Stefanski managed the draft and maneuvered their way through it to provide a glowing capstone to the offseason.

A defense in the sugar-plum visions of coordinator Joe Woods has been conjured into reality. Woods could only dream of this during glories that last season’s offense mostly generated. If that offense—remade during the previous transactional season—took next to no cards in this draw, the trickle of worry this could prompt can be ignored. For now.

The draft did yield from the third-round Auburn wide receiver Anthony Schwartz, who is reportedly so fast (4.26 in the 40-yard dash) he can flip the switch on his bedroom wall and be under the covers before it’s dark. Imagine him taking the top off of opposing secondaries and quarterback Baker Mayfield pouring in touchdown passes. If such a thing happens for an already quality offense, it won’t the biggest shock from the draft.

That surprise would be what this team that had all but disdained linebackers does with not one but two more when Woods wishes to play only two in his beloved 4-2-5. My preferred linebacker, Tulsa’s Zevan Collins, a big throwback, Swiss-army-knife type, was long gone before the Browns’ first pick, the coveted cornerback Greg Newsome II. DePodesta said afterward that the team had considered selecting a linebacker with the 26^thpick and, if Newsome had not been there, that linebacker might have been JOK.

JOK is not shorthand for joke. They are the initials of Notre Dame’s Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, whom the Browns traded up in Round Two to draft with the 52^nd pick. NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah ranked JOK the 15^th best prospect in the draft. Talk about a value pick: “Owusu-Koramoah might lack ideal size/bulk (6-1½, 221), but he’s built to the pass-happy NFL.” Add his coverage ability to Newsome’s and a team weakness becomes a strength. West Virginia’s Tony Fields II, first of two fifth-round selections, is by most accounts, including his own, another JOK: “We’re both athletic linebackers,” Fields said after being chosen, “but that’s what the game is changing to.” And the Browns are changing with it to the point that Pro Football Focus, one of the more respected analytic websites bestowed on Cleveland’s draft an A+ and concluded, “The Browns are one of the NFL’s smartest teams.”

For years after their 1999 reincarnation the Browns wallowed in incompetence. Now post-draft praise pours in from well beyond the local precincts. Here is some:

Mel Kiper, ESPN Analyst—“How does it feel, Browns fans, to not have to worry too much about an NFL draft? You’ve got a good, ascending team, and a general manger Andrew Berry who has shown he can draft well. The one criticism I have about Berry’s top three picks is that he didn’t address the defensive end spot. . . . There is not much young talent beyond (Jadeveon) Clowney and Myles Garrett. They can’t rely on former first-round pick Takk McKinley.” Grade: B. In the AFC North, Baltimore received a B+, Cincinnati a B, and Pittsburgh a C+, one of three teams to receive Kiper’s lowest grade.

Todd McShay, ESPN Senior Writer—While he did not grade team drafts, McShay recognized value picks and steals, including JOK. “I had Owusu-Koramoah at No. 12 on my final board and thought he could go somewhere in the middle of the first round. So while I do like Greg Newsome II as Cleveland’s Day 1 selection . . . I had to go with the value that the Browns got with Owusu-Koramoah outside the top 50 picks.”

Chad Reuter, NFL.com Draft Analyst—Grade: A. Reuter liked pretty much everything the Browns did but, he wrote, “finding a talented cornerback like Newsome waiting to hear his name called at No. 26 was a big bonus for the Browns.” Not an unplanned one, though. The Browns’ mock draft indicated Newsome might tumble right to them.

Gregg Rosenthal, NFL.com Around the NFL Editor—“The Browns didn’t touch their offense all offseason until selecting Anthony Schwartz in the third round. Their defense, on the other hand, could include seven to nine new starters . . .” Even so, “defensive tackle looks like the biggest concern.”

Mark Maske, Washington Post NFL Writer—“There is plenty to love about what the Browns did. Their picks drew cheers from the local fans gathered at the draft site. And those cheers were justified. Getting versatile LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah 20 choices into the second round was one of the best picks of the entire draft. Grade: A-, best he gave to an AFC North team, with the Ravens receiving B-, Steelers B, and Bengals C-.

Nate Davis, USA Today—(Added 05/03/21) Davis is correct to push back against the term and use of grades, referring to them as “an exercise in futility.” In the end, however, he acquiesces. Thank you, Nate. You are one of the best and most clever writers on things NFL. He gave the Browns an A-, one of 10 variants of the his top recognition awarded and best among AFC North teams (Bengals B+, Ravens C+, and Steelers C). By taking Humphrey and JOK, he believes “Andrew Berry’s defense could approach elite territory.” Interestingly, a late-round defensive selection also impressed him: “Keep an eye on fifth-round (safety) Richard LeCounte III.” If Davis is correct, the Browns collection of safeties is truly first-rate.

Anthony Treash, Pro Football Focus—(Added 05/03/21) Treash, combining assessments of free agency and the draft, focuses on “teams that improved the most in the 2021 offseason to set themselves up for long-term success.” The Browns are one of six listed in alphabetical order, not ranked; the other five are: the Bears, Bengals, Chargers, Giants, and Jets. (It was a big year for improvement by New York teams but they had only one direction to go.) Treash did, however, pay the Browns a compliment: “If we were to rank the best offseasons…the Browns would undoubtedly be No. 1 They made two of the best signing in free agency in safety John Johnson III and slot cornerback Troy Hill, then followed it up with two of the biggest steals of the 2021 Draft in cornerback Greg Newsome II and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.” Treash points out that Johnson, according to PFF metrics, was “one of the five most valuable defensive players in the NFL.”  The Browns defense ranked 22nd per-play efficiency. “With all the playmakers the team added this offseason, I would be shocked if the Browns didn’t jump inside the top 10, if not the top five.”

This is only a sampling of the reactions. The consensus is that the not-so-New Browns, who finished with a 12-6 record that included a playoff victory, have improved and should be better than their best season. All that remains is to prepare and play—and, maybe cope with a little paranoia about what could go wrong in a schizophrenic land.