Browns bet big on brash QB Mayfield
Oklahoma star not lacking in confidence as the No .1 pick in this year’ s NFL draft
Third time’s a charm, right? That’s what the Cleveland Browns hope.
To kick off a night rife with surprises, the NFL’s bumblingest franchise opened the NFL draft Thursday by selecting a quarterback rated no higher than third at his position by most draftniks: the uber-brash, undersized Baker Mayfield from the University of Oklahoma.
Mayfield is the third passer Cleveland has taken in the first round in just the past seven years — albeit multiple front-office regimes ago — after insta-flameouts Brandon Weeden in 2012 and Johnny Manziel in 2014.
If Mayfield is to succeed where other QB hopes since the franchise’s rebirth in 1999 have failed miserably, he’ll want to get off to a strong start. It sure won’t be easy. Cleveland has lost 17 straight and 38 of its last 40 games.
It’s possible the Browns will stay true to their word in March and start Tyrod Taylor at QB to begin the season after they acquired him via trade from Buffalo. But don’t believe it. Taylor is a terrible, limited passer. Mayfield, for all his gnawing bravado and immaturity, can sling it far better already.
But about Mayfield’s bravado. He said without hesitation at last month’s scouting combine he’s the best passer in this draft and underscored that when asked why he’d be the ideal fit for the Browns at No. 1 overall.
“First things first, I’d be a winner. I think if anybody can turn that franchise around, it’d be me,” the 23-year-old said. “I’d be able to turn them in the right direction. They’re close. They’re very close. They have the right pieces. They just need the one guy at quarterback to make the difference.”
Rather than me listing Mayfield’s best attributes, it’d be more fitting if we let him do it:
“I think it’s a few things. Accuracy. I can make any throw. Winning is the most important, but the way I’ve been able to get my guys around me to play. Not just the offensive players around me, the other 10 guys, but defensive guys, special teams. The energy I bring, the passion I bring, it’s infectious. You can ask anybody on that Oklahoma staff. That’s what I bring to the table and it helps out.”
For good measure, he added he intends to become the greatest pro quarterback ever.
Yes, Mayfield under-promises like Donald Trump.
About half an hour later, the Browns made their second pick of the draft at No. 4 overall (a selection acquired in a trade with the Houston Texans last year). They snared the best cornerback in this draft by most accounts in Ohio State’s Denzel Ward.
That the Browns didn’t trade down from that spot was a surprise. In fact, there were only two trade-ups into the top 10 after four months of endless theorizing.
First, Buffalo — in its first of a pair of first-round trade-ups — rose from No. 12 to get Tampa Bay’s No. 7, for the cost of two second-round picks, and selected the third quarterback of the young evening in Josh Allen.
This after USC’s Sam Darnold — most draftniks’ No. 1 QB — went third overall to the New York Jets. What can the Jets expect from Darnold?
“A lot of wins,” he told NFL Network at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, which some 100,000 fans were expected to jam.
The second trade-up, by Arizona from No. 15 to 10 in a swap with Oakland, was for the fourth QB taken in the top 10: UCLA’s Josh Rosen — seen by most as perhaps the most pro-ready passer of the bunch, but with less room for growth than the others and a nagging penchant for hanging onto the ball too long and getting clobbered.
He didn’t look too pleased to have been the fourth QB taken.
“Chip’s only growing bigger,” he told NFL Network.
Other than the order of the first four quarterbacks — who had it going Mayfield, Darnold, Allen, then Rosen? — the rest of the top 10 went mostly as expected.
The New York Giants, who clung to their No. 2 overall pick, selected Penn State running back Saquon Barkley.
Two Notre Dame offensive linemen went in the next five: guard Quenton Nelson to Indianapolis at No. 6 and tackle Mike McGlinchey to San Francisco at No. 9. It was only the seventh time two O -linemen from the same university were selected in the top 10 in the same draft year.
More trade-ups highlighted the next 10 selections, including Buffalo surprisingly moving up from No. 22 for Baltimore’s No. 16 pick to select the youngest player in this draft, 19-year-old do-it-all linebacker Tremaine Edmunds from Virginia Tech.
New Orleans gave Green Bay a 2019 first-round pick plus a fifth-rounder this Saturday to rise from No. 27 to 14 to select the first edge rusher this year in Marcus Davenport from UTSA.
Louisville’s Lamar Jackson was the only other QB expected to go in the first round, but as expected he didn’t hear his name called in the first half.
Buffalo’s selection of Allen over Rosen after trading up to No. 7 is sure to be debated for months, if not years to come. Instant reaction on Twitter, radio and other social media seemed to indicate that most Bills fans were livid that GM Brandon Beane took the other Josh — as in Allen over Rosen.