Clevland Brown: NFL Draft

You’re the Cleveland Browns. You have the first overall pick in the NFL draft. You also have the 12th pick in the draft. You need a quarterback. You know that Peyton Manning went first in the draft, that Troy Aikman went first in the draft, that Cam Newton and Andrew Luck and Jameis Winston went first in the draft. The path to success goes through the quarterback, and it can be long and bumpy even with a marquee player.

You want to be build. You want to put a quality product on the field. And what year is this? Not the year of the quarterback.

The much-respected Mike Mayock, in a draft analysis on the NFL Network on Tuesday, let the air out of that football.

“I don’t think there is a quarterback worthy of number one,” Mayock said.

Bummer. And it doesn’t get better. The top three in the class – Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky – all have sufficient holes in their games. Holes big enough for Mayock to say that none of them should go in the first 10 picks or be expected to play early.

The Browns have started 12 different quarterbacks since 2010, including first-round pick and class act Johnny Manziel, who is out of the league. This is how they came to be 1-15 in 2016.

Mayock recommends they use that top pick to build their defense. It’s sound thinking but not sexy. When you hold the top pick, you can’t trade up. And in a year with flawed quarterbacks, which way do you turn?

The Browns. The poor Browns. They’re just a darker shade of beige.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman