After the Browns took defensive end Myles Garrett at No. 1, the Chicago Bears traded up to the No. 2 spot soon after to nab Trubisky. Meanwhile Cleveland traded down from No. 12 to No. 25 with the Houston Texans. They didn’t take a quarterback there, either, opting to select versatile defender Jabrill Peppers instead. With their third pick in the first round, the Browns selected David Njoku, a tight end, effectively leaving second-year quarterback Cody Kessler, a third-round pick in 2016, as the team’s top quarterback on the depth chart for the 2017 season.

On the surface, given the expectation Cleveland would surely select a quarterback with at least one of its picks, it was a head-scratcher. But it might not be as crazy as many people think.

Kessler took over signal-caller duties for Cleveland last season after injuries to starter Robert Griffin III and veteran reserve Josh McCown, completing 128 of his 195 attempts (65.6 percent) for 1,380 yards and six touchdowns against just two interceptions in eight starts. He was, however, sacked 21 times and suffered two concussions in the span of a month. Assuming the Cleveland line improves enough to keep him healthy, his performance under pressure was encouraging: Per the game charters at Pro Football Focus, he ranked first among passers in completion percentage under pressure after accounting for dropped passes, throwaways, spiked balls, batted passes and passes where he was hit while throwing the ball (80.6 percent), fifth in overall adjusted completion percentage (78.2 percent) and sixth in passer rating under pressure (82.4).

And Kessler would be sure to benefit from the Browns investing heavily in the offensive line during free agency.

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Cleveland’s offensive front allowed its quarterback to be sacked once out of every nine snaps after adjusting for down, distance and opponents, the worst pass protection in the NFL last season. This offseason, the front office signed guard Kevin Zeitler and center J.C. Tretter to multi-year deals.

Tretter was ranked as the No. 13 center in the NFL last season by Pro Football Focus, allowing just two sacks in 488 snaps for the Green Bay Packers in 2016. He is also a massive upgrade over Cameron Ervin, the lowest rated center per PFF. Zeitler was the sixth-highest rated guard overall and the second-best pass-protecting guard on the right side, allowing one sack, three hits and 15 hurries over 1,087 snaps.

They will join left tackle Joe Thomas, the fourth-best tackle last season, and Joel Bitonio, who was playing at a Pro Bowl level before he suffered a broken foot against the Washington Redskins in Week 5, to form what could be one of the better offensive lines in the league in 2017.

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The Browns could still draft a passer with one of their seven remaining picks, but based on historical performance, it is probably best to wait until next year.

According to The Washington Post‘s draft analysis, the average five-year value of a quarterback (using Approximate Value (AV), a stat created by Pro Football Reference that measures how well a player performed overall in a season) starts at 45 AV in the first round and depreciates significantly from there, indicating Cleveland most likely has missed its opportunity to find its future franchise quarterback in the 2016 draft.