What are the Browns going to do with their No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft in just over three weeks?
They’ll almost certainly take a quarterback. But which one?
And what will they take with the No. 4 selection. Hopefully keep it. If they do, then which player will they choose?
Browns General Manager John Dorsey, the man running the draft for the team, probably knows by now what he’s going to do at both spots. But he isn’t saying publicly, and obviously won’t.
You already were aware of all that, however.
Sportsillustrated.com’s Peter King, the best pro football writer anywhere, doesn’t know, either, what’s going to happen with the Browns. But in his popular Monday Morning Quarterback column on … Monday morning – imagine that? – talked to a friend of Dorsey. Here’s what King wrote, and it’s a bit surprising:
“This friend of Cleveland GM John Dorsey (FOD) believes he’ll go Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen over (USC’s) Sam Darnold with the first overall pick, keep the fourth pick, and take Penn State running back Saquon Barkley.
“ ‘I would be surprised if he traded down,’ FOD told me. ‘This would be his chance to take his two offensive cornerstones for the next eight or 10 years.’ ”
“The most interesting thing there? That FOD thinks Dorsey will not trade. I think that’s great.
“Cleveland’s been very good at trading and stockpiling, and not very good at drafting, in the last few years. I hope Dorsey’s more about the (relatively) sure things instead of Cleveland leading the league in draft picks.”
I do, too.
Most everybody thinks the Browns will take Darnold at 1 and anybody but Barkley at 4. I want them to take Allen and Barkley, so I hope this friend of Dorsey is right on target.
There’s something about Darnold that just doesn’t impress me – I like Allen much more — and I am convinced that Barkley is the best overall player in the draft.
Just something more to think about as the draft draws ever closer.