UCLA star may prefer Big Blue over Browns
The Browns’ dysfunction is a gift to 31 other teams — this Christmas season, perhaps to the Giants most of all.
UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen, one of the projected top picks in next year’s draft, prefers the Giants to the Browns and may stay in college another year if it becomes clear Cleveland would take him No. 1, according to an ESPN report.
The Giants currently are positioned to have the No. 2 pick and perhaps can benefit from Rosen’s camp trying to scare the Browns, with their horrid quarterback history, away from drafting him.
Rosen would not be the first to try to avoid Cleveland. In fact, a report surfaced earlier this year that star quarterback Sam Darnold may go back to USC if the Browns have the No. 1 pick. Darnold has denied the claim.
This would echo how Eli Manning found his way to the Giants. Manning in 2004 stated he would not play for the Chargers, who had the No. 1 pick, if they drafted him. They did, but quickly flipped him to the Giants in a haul that included their No. 4 pick, Philip Rivers.
Rosen is no shoo-in for the top pick, but he would be a near guarantee to be an early first-rounder. Rosen, Darnold and Wyoming’s Josh Allen have long been the frontrunners in a vaunted QB draft class, but Rosen’s stock may have risen the most this season.
“Rosen certainly has helped himself,” a general manager told The Post’s Brian Costello earlier this month about the junior, who has thrown 26 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions this year. “He’s played well without a talented team around him. I think he augmented his stock.”
The Giants will have a significant quarterback decision to make when the time comes, as Manning turns 37 in January and Davis Webb still has not played this season for a team that fell to 2-13 on Sunday with a 23-0 loss to the Cardinals.