Allen is the next QB to visit Berea

Josh Allen, one of the quarterbacks the Browns are considering selecting in the draft April 26, is scheduled to visit the Browns on April 12 in Berea.

Lamar Jackson of Louisville will be in Berea on April 13, according to NFL.com, which means by the end of the week, all five quarterbacks with the chance to become the face of the franchise will have been given the tour at 76 Lou Groza Blvd.

Allen’s three rivals to be the top pick — Baker Mayfield from Oklahoma, Sam Darnold from Southern Cal and Josh Rosen from UCLA — were at Browns headquarters last week for the usual prodding and grilling teams put potential draftees through at this time of year.

The Browns have kept their preference among the elite in the 2018 quarterback class a secret.

Allen is intriguing because he is 6-foot-5, 233 pounds, has the strongest arm in the draft and is built like Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Todd Haley, now the Browns offensive coordinator, was Roethlisberger’s offensive coordinator with the Steelers the past six years.

Allen completed 361 of 643 passes the past two seasons at Wyoming for 5,015 yards with 44 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. He might be the undisputed No. 1 player of mock drafts except for one big, bright red flag: He completed only 56.2 percent of his passes.

Former Ravens coach Brian Billick, now an analyst on NFL Network, said on the network that Allen’s completion percentage is a risk too big to make him a top-five pick.

“This guy has eye-popping talent,” Billick said. “People who I’ve talked to who have been able to sit with him love the personality and intelligence.

“Everything gets checked off, but I think the completion percentage is a major, major concern. His topside could be unlimited.

But his bottom is really, really scary in terms of what could happen.”

Billick compared Allen to Kyle Boller, a quarterback from California picked 19th overall by the Ravens in 2003. Boller, 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, played eight NFL seasons. He was 20-27 as a starter, threw 48 touchdown passes and 54 interceptions and completed 56.7 percent (861 of 1,519) of his passes.

Boller’s completion percentage at Cal was atrocious — just 47.8 percent. Billick recalled scouts saying the same things they are saying now about Allen.

“Kyle Boller had spectacular physical skills, very much like Josh Allen,” Billick said. “He could throw the ball 80 yards off his knees. He had absolutely everything.

“He was a sub-60 percent completion guy at Cal. We dismissed that because he didn’t have a great receiving corps and the nature of what they were doing offensively. We dismissed the accuracy because of that, and it was a mistake. I love Josh Allen, but I have major, major concerns.”

Times have changed in the 15 years since the Ravens missed on Boller. Now, virtually every highly rated quarterback has a personal tutor to get him ready for

the draft.

Jordan Palmer, a former NFL quarterback, has been working with Allen on footwork and ways to improve his accuracy. Palmer is working with Darnold, too. Darnold has his own demons; he turned the ball over 22 times in 2017 — 13 interceptions and nine fumbles.

“(Allen) has a cannon,” Browns coach Hue Jackson told reporters at the league meetings last month, four days after Allen dazzled scouts at the Wyoming pro day. “He threw a ball that hit a guy in the sternum and you could hear it go ‘boom.’ I mean, he can really throw a football. And when he does it all right from a biomechanics standpoint and his body being in line, everything, he throws it as pretty as I’ve seen.

“I’ve seen him throw the ball with touch as well. I saw that at the Senior Bowl where he did that, threw a huge touchdown pass with great touch. So he can do it. He has the different speeds of his arm, but when he needs to fit a ball in, he can fit a ball in.”

Jackson is on record saying whichever quarterback the Browns draft will sit behind Tyrod Taylor in 2018. The Browns traded a third-round pick to Buffalo for Taylor, who was 2220 as a starter for the Bills over the past three seasons.

Allen