Countdown To Draft Day: Cleveland’s 10 Worst First-Round Picks Since 1999: #9 Barkevious Mingo

Last night we began our countdown of the ten worst Cleveland Browns 1st-Round Draft Picks since 1999.

Clocking in at #10 was Phil Taylor.

Today, we give you #9: Barkevious Mingo.

The linebacker was selected 6th overall out of LSU in the 2013 Draft.

The Browns had high hopes for Mingo, who was second-team All-SEC in 2011 and 2012.

His NFL career never lived up to the hype.

Mingo did have some solid games his rookie year, with five sacks in 15 games, but the trajectory of his career has only gone down since 2013.

The outside linebacker made 26 total tackles in 2014, and made little impact in 2015, with 15 tackles in 16 games.

At least he has been on the field for 46 of a possible 48 games, but considering he was taken sixth overall, and expected to be a game-changing player on defense, the Browns clearly have not gotten what they hoped for out of him.

He’s only 25 and it’s still possible for him to have a breakout season, but three years of tape seem to paint a picture that he will most likely never blossom into the player Browns fans were raving about after the 2013 Draft.

If you still have any question as to why Mingo made our list as a bust, just look at the guys the Browns have been giving playing time over him. This is not to knock these guys, but compared to a sixth overall pick, it says something about how that pick turned out:

Chris Kirksey: 3rd-Round Pick, 23 years old.

Craig Robertson: Undrafted

Tank Carder: 5th-Round Pick

Again, this is not to rip on those players. They’re solid. But if you’re selected sixth overall, you should not be getting beat out for playing time by players that are taken that late in the draft or are undrafted altogether.

Maybe Mingo puts it altogether in his fourth season in 2016. We’ll see.

In defense of the Browns, none of the players selected in the same neighborhood of the 2013 NFL Draft turned out to be star players, either.

Tavon Austin and Sheldon Richardson were the only two players selected between #6 and #13 that have appeared in a Pro-Bowl, and neither of them are considered superstars.

Come back tomorrow to see who is #8 on our list!