Two if by Air: Upgrading the Cleveland Browns Receiving Corps with Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion

Andrew Berry has historically guarded his first- and second-round draft assets like a dragon guarding a gold hoard, rarely double-dipping at a premium offensive skill position. But the 2026 NFL Draft shattered the old Berea blueprint. By drafting Texas A&M dynamic weapon KC Concepcion at No. 24 and doubling down with Washington's towering aerial threat Denzel Boston at No. 39, the Browns didn't just tweak the wide receiver room—they completely redesigned its engine.

The Musical Hint and a Greeny Gaff

The NFL broadcast team in Pittsburgh practically gave the Dawg Pound a 60-second warning before the pick was turned in. Going into the commercial break just before No. 39 overall, the broadcast network queued up the stadium rock anthem "More Than a Feeling" by the legendary band Boston. It was a not-so-subtle easter egg for anyone watching the board layout closely.

Yet leave it to ESPN’s Mike Greenberg to completely step on Cleveland's draft pick momentum. During the live analysis, Greeny made the ultimate unforced broadcasting error by confidently informing a national television audience that Denzel Boston was the son of former Ohio State star and NFL wideout David Boston. For a professional anchor, it was an incredibly sloppy research omission—the two are entirely unrelated.

Denzel isn't riding on family coattails; he earned his draft stock the hard way, logging 1,781 yards and 20 touchdowns over 43 games in Washington.

Bypassing the Board: Boston vs. McMillan

The selection of Boston at No. 39 is a fascinating study in front-office philosophy. A vocal contingent of Cleveland sports bloggers spent the 2025 draft cycle screaming for the front office to draft Arizona's physical marvel Tetairoa McMillan, frustrated when Andrew Berry instead selected defensive tackle Mason Graham. By sliding Boston into the system a year later, Berry found a tactical mirror image to McMillan with a cheaper draft pick.

Metric Breakdown	Denzel Boston	Tetairoa McMillan (2025 1st Rounder)
Height / Weight	6'3 ¾" / 212 lbs	6'5" / 210 lbs
Athletic Profile (40-Yard)	4.49s	4.51s
Relative Athletic Score (RAS)	9.18	9.34
Contested Catch Rate (College)	54.2%	56.1%
Primary Structural Role	X-Receiver / Red Zone Ladder	Boundary Pivot / Deep Crosser

Boston brings that exact "above the rim" verticality that fans craved with McMillan. He gives the offense an alpha target built in the mold of a Mike Evans or Nico Collins, capable of adjusting his frame mid-air and winning isolated 50-50 balls down the sideline.

FOLLOWING The Zay Flowers Blueprint

While Boston stretches the vertical boundaries, first-round pick KC Concepcion is designed to manipulate space underneath. To understand his projection, look directly at how Head Coach Todd Monken weaponized Zay Flowers during his  stint as Offensive Coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens.

Concepcion—the Paul Hornung Award winner as the nation’s most versatile athlete—is a dynamic chess piece. In his lone season at Texas A&M after transferring from NC State, he racked up 919 yards and 9 touchdowns while creating absolute havoc as a weapon after the catch.

The Dropped-Pass Variable: Skeptics will quickly point out that Concepcion entered the professional ranks with high collegiate drop rates hovering around 9.5%. But Flowers dropped around 10% of his collegiate targets as well. Flowers proved in Baltimore's system that high level coaching can stabilize those issues—converting his high-variance hands into successive 1,000-yard targets. The Browns are betting on Monken to mold Concepcion in the same fashion. 

Concepcion tracks identically to Flowers in athletic dimensions and spacing efficiency:

Athletic / Production Metric	KC Concepcion	Zay Flowers (College Stats)
Height / Weight	5'11 ⅝" / 196 lbs	5'9" / 182 lbs
Relative Athletic Score (RAS)	8.85 (Unofficial)	8.29
Yards After Catch (YAC per Rec)	6.8 yards	6.5 yards
Special Teams Utility	2 Punt Return TDs (2025)	Heavy Jet-Sweep / Return History

Building the Berea Starting Five

With these two new draft investments, the Browns are no longer just searching for a simple "Number Two" receiver behind Jerry Jeudy. They have engineered a diverse unit that mimics a basketball starting five, forcing opposing defensive coordinators to choose which mismatch they want to surrender.

• The Point Guard (KC Concepcion): The slippery space creator who dominates the flat and turns short screen targets into chunk plays with elite short-area acceleration.
• The Two Guard (Isaiah Bond): The speed demon who leads the fast break, stretching linear safety boundaries and pulling the top off defensive zones.
• The Small Forward (Jerry Jeudy): The ultimate slasher. A master technician and elite route runner who slices through zone coverages to create instant throwing windows.
• The Power Forward (Cedric Tillman): The physical, heavy-bodied target who can box out smaller cornerbacks in the medium horizontal zones.
• The Center (Denzel Boston): The high-pointing aerial tower engineered to play above the rim inside the red zone.

The Bottom Line: By securing both Concepcion and Boston, Andrew Berry has successfully modernized the structural limitations of Cleveland's passing offense. This young core is younger, more athletic, and dynamic enough to dictate matchups across every square inch of the field.