The Browns desire to rely on the running game and the way Derrick Henry would fit with Duke Johnson are a major intrigue among the team's new decision makers.

BEREA Don't be surprised if the Browns take a shot at the reigning Heisman Trophy winner next Friday.



The team might want to avoid spending its No. 8 overall pick on a running back, or might find that Ohio State's Ezekiel Elliott is already gone.

That won't be known until the first round of the draft is rolling on Thursday. What is known is that the Browns want to lean heavily on the running game in 2016, and that several teams are sniffing around Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry about where Cleveland is scheduled to pick at No. 32 — the first pick of the second round.

No one ranks Alabama's Henry as high as Elliott in terms of all-around ability. However, Henry is incredibly big. He rushed 2,219 yards with 28 touchdowns for the national-champion Alabama Crimson Tide. The Browns might see him as part of a one-two punch, with Duke Johnson, that would fit their new regime well.

Johnson, a Round 3 pick last year, proved to be a strong pass-catching threat and is seen as having good upside as a runner. He could be a change-of-pace to a slammer like Henry, should the Browns want an upgrade over Isaiah Crowell.

Crowell, undrafted in 2014, led the 2015 Browns with 706 rushing yards at 3.8 per carry. He scored four touchdowns.

In addition to his massive body (6-foot-3, 247), Henry is athletic (4.54 40 and 37-inch vertical jump at the Combine). Analyst Mike Mayock sees him dropping to No. 32 or further "only because the league has devalued running backs."

"He's a gifted tailback and a great pass protector," Mayock said. "I really like him."

Assorted national mock drafts have Henry going at No. 30 to Carolina, No. 34 to Dallas and No. 37 to San Francisco. None of those teams have any more of an appetite than the Browns to assemble a strong running game.

The Browns have big question marks at both quarterback and wide receiver and might convince themselves that a Henry-Johnson tag team would give them at least one area of obvious strength. Henry projects as a good goal-line back, an area in which the 2015 Browns struggled.

Eyebrows of Browns fans raise when one talks about drafting a running back from Alabama. In 2012, the Browns traded up to No. 3 and picked Trent Richardson, who was third in the 2011 Heisman Trophy balloting behind Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck.

New Browns scouting director Andrew Berry was in Indianapolis when the Colts gave the Browns a first-round draft pick for Richardson, who had struggled in Cleveland. The Colts eventually cut Richardson.

Asked about Richardson Friday, Berry said:

"I'm not going to comment on Trent specifically, but there always is a level of uncertainty with any player that you pick. Certainly the player's development once you get him in your program ... there's a partnership. Part of it's on the individual player, but it's also up to us to give him a program to maximize his abilities."

The new Browns regime is making its own judgments of players and situations and seems disinclined to hold anything that went wrong with Richardson against Henry.

Henry's use of his abilities at Alabama won him the Heisman in a close race with Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, 378 first-place votes to 290 (Elliott had five).

Ohio State fans and Browns fans are eager to find out if the Browns will pounce on Elliott, if he falls to them at No. 8. If not, don't be surprised if Henry is the pick at No. 32.

Reach Steve via email at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP