McCloughan brought in as draft consultant

Scot McCloughan has worked on the personnel side of NFL teams since 1994.

The football side of the Browns’ front office, inexperienced and afraid to commit to a quarterback the past two years, is adding another pair of seasoned eyes to the staff of general manager John Dorsey.

Scot McCloughan, who has worked on the personnel side of NFL teams since 1994 when he started as a regional scout with the Green Bay Packers, is joining the Browns as a consultant to prepare for the April draft. The story was first reported by ESPN.

McCloughan could lead a charge to take Baker Mayfield with the first or fourth pick in the draft. During an interview in October on the Sirius XM “Doug Gottlieb Show,” long before he had any link to the Browns, McCloughan compared the former Oklahoma quarterback to Brett Favre. Favre played for the Packers when McCloughan was in Green Bay.

“He reminds me of a shorter version of Brett Favre,” McCloughan said. “Tough guy. He can throw it. And he’s very confident, and he’s not afraid whatsoever, whatsoever. He’s a battler. I know saying Brett Favre’s a big name, and I was around him for a while, but this guy’s got talent.”

McCloughan most recently was general manager of the Washington

Redskins.

He was fired on March 9, 2017, less than two months before the draft last year, for an alleged drinking problem.

Twenty-four years in personnel is more than enough to label McCloughan experienced, but according to his bio he started scouting players long before that. His father, Kent McCloughan, was a cornerback for the Raiders in the late 1960s. Father and son watched film of college players in their basement.

Former Packers GM Ron

Wolf knew the elder McCloughan. It was through that connection that Scot McCloughan broke in with the Packers.

Along the way, McCloughan has also been the director of college scouting with the Seattle Seahawks and vice president of player personnel with the 49ers before serving as 49ers’ general manager in 2008 and 2009. He worked four more years in the Seahawks’ personnel department before being hired as Redskins general manager in 2015.

McCloughan doesn’t have a fancy job title with the Browns, but his input will be critical as they map out a plan to spend 12 picks in the 2018 draft. They have picks one, four, 33, 35, the Eagles’ second-round pick and seven more in the last five rounds.

Sam Darnold of USC, Josh Rosen of UCLA and Josh Allen of Wyoming, along with Mayfield, are considered first-round worthy quarterbacks. The Browns will most likely draft one of them with the first or fourth pick if they

don’t sign Kirk Cousins in free agency.

Dorsey was hired as Browns general manager on Dec. 7. Since then, he hired Eliot Wolf as assistant general manager and Alonzo Highsmith as vice president of player personnel.

Dorsey, Wolf, Highsmith and McCloughan all began their personnel careers with the Packers. They have a combined 84 years in NFL front offices.

Sashi Brown, an attorney and salary cap specialist until he was put in charge of the Browns’ entire

football operation in January 2016, was fried the day Dorsey was hired.

Brown traded down instead of drafting quarterback Carson Wentz in 2016 and he traded down in 2017 instead of drafting Deshaun Watson.

In the end, he drafted DeShone Kizer with the 52nd pick.

Kizer threw a leaguehigh 22 interceptions and had a league-low completion percentage of 53.6.

It is safe to say the new regime will not trade away its top two picks this year.

McCloughan