So much attention is paid to Johnny Manziel that it's easy to forget he wasn't even the Cleveland Browns' highest first-round draft pick in 2014.
That honor belongs to Justin Gilbert, who as the eighth pick was the highest selection of the four first-rounders picked in the past two drafts.
For that selection, the Browns have gotten three starts, 35 tackles, nine passes broken up and one interception (for a touchdown).
Gilbert also has been problematic. Attitude issues derailed his rookie season. In his second, he simply could not get on the field aside from kickoff returns.
He was effective at that, showing speed and averaging 28.3 yards per return. But the eighth overall pick is supposed to do a lot more than return kicks.
Gilbert barely got on the field, and when he did he struggled. That does not dissuade him from believing he can still help.
"As long as I continue to take care of my body the way I’ve been doing, they’re going to get what they drafted me to do," Gilbert said the day after the season ended.
He blamed circumstances beyond his control for his second-year struggles.
"I didn’t really get a chance to really prove myself or really show what I could do," he said. "I messed up a lot last year, but didn’t really feel like I got a chance to do what I know I can do, because every time I got a chance, I would either go down with an injury or something. Baltimore, I went out with a concussion, and at the beginning of the season, I was dealing with nagging injuries, so didn’t really get a chance to prove what I can do.”
Gilbert bristled at the notion that former GM Ray Farmer's first-round picks did not work out. He said the only thing that held him back was injury.
"I can tell you that because, when I was healthy, I was about to start or starting," he said. "So that’s pretty much all I have to say about that.”
Gilbert said a new coach won't matter to him, but he's a player with a precarious future. New coaches and new regimes are not patient with former first-round picks, especially when they struggle. The last thing a new coach wants is someone else's problem.
Gilbert has not lived up to the draft slot in which he was taken. He has had off- and on-field issues, including a report from WEWS-Channel 5 that he refused to go on the field for the season finale.
"That was false," Gilbert said, "because I was in the game, and I was playing special teams. I just wasn’t up on defense. [Johnson Bademosi] and Pierre [Desir] were ahead of me at the time.”
Bademosi was a converted safety who struggled all season when forced to play corner. Desir was taken in the fourth round the same year Gilbert was taken in the first and was up and down all season. Both were ahead of Gilbert, as was rookie Charles Gaines, who spent much of the season on injured reserve.
The fact that all three were ahead of Gilbert at a time when Joe Haden was on injured reserve speaks volumes about what the former coaching staff thought of Gilbert.
Once the Browns have their new coach, Gilbert would seem to be a prime choice for the proverbial "fresh start with another team."
