<P> The Cleveland Browns joined the National Football League (NFL) in 1950 with the Baltimore Colts and San Francisco 49ers after having spent four seasons with the All - America Football Conference . The Browns' first selection as an NFL team was Ken Carpenter, a wide receiver from Oregon State . The team's most recent first round selections were Baker Mayfield, quarterback at Oklahoma and Denzel Ward, cornerback at Ohio State . </P> <P> Every year during April, each NFL franchise seeks to add new players to its roster through a collegiate draft known as "the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting", which is more commonly known as the NFL Draft . Teams are ranked in inverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, and the second worst picking second and so on . The two exceptions to this order are made for teams that appeared in the previous Super Bowl; the Super Bowl champion always picks 32nd, and the Super Bowl loser always picks 31st . Teams have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or a combination thereof . Thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades . </P>

Who did the cleveland browns draft in the first round this year