Cleveland Browns general manager Ray Farmer and other club officials flew to Orlando Sunday to have dinner with Central Florida wide receiver Breshad Perriman, a potential first-round pick in this week's NFL draft.
The meeting brought together one of the draft's most impressive pure athletes with a team seeking immediate help at the wide receiver position in the wake of the mimimum one-year suspension levied upon Browns star receiver Josh Gordon in February. The dinner was confirmed by cleveland.com.
While the meeting, just days before Thursday's first round commences in Chicago, is indicative of high interest in Perriman for the Browns, it doesn't necessarily suggest where in the draft the club might choose to make him theirs. Cleveland's first three draft picks come at No. 12, 19 and 43. If Farmer and the Browns are determined to take Perriman, the No. 19 pick figures to be the one to use, because his availability at No. 43 would be far more questionable.
NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah rates Perriman as the No. 32 overall prospect available.
"If there's a receiver that provides the best value and the best player, then we'll probably take that guy," Farmer said last week, according to cleveland.com. "If there's not and there's a guy that we think who can influence our team or help our team in a different way, in a better way, we'll take that guy."
Perriman was unable to run the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in February due to an injury, but established himself as one of the draft's rising options at wide receiver a month ago at UCF's pro day when he ran two 40-yard dashes unofficially clocked under 4.3.
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