The Cleveland Browns have done a tremendous job of actually bringing in football guys to run their front office. It started with the hiring of John Dorsey as general manager this past season and has included bringing in Eliot Wolf as assistant general manager.
Their most-recent addition might be the most intriguing. It was reported over the weekend that Cleveland has has tapped former Washington Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan as a consultant for the 2018 NFL Draft. McCloughan was unceremoniously fired by the Redskins prior to the 2017 season. That didn’t sit well with many around the league. A respected football mind dating back to his days with Seattle and San Francisco, McCloughan should be a great asset for the revamped Browns front office.
In between his time as Washington’s general manager and his new gig in Cleveland, McCloughan remained active on social media and within the larger confines of the media itself. He’s thrown opinions out there regarding his tenure in D.C. and Kirk Cousins, among other things.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s on record talking about one of the most-interesting prospects of the 2018 NFL Draft — reigning Heisman winner Baker Mayfield. Instead, it is a bit surprising what McCloughan thinks of the Oklahoma product.
“He (Mayfield) reminds me of a shorter version of Brett Favre,” McCloughan told Fox Sports radio back in October (h/t Cleveland.com).”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 has talent.”
McCloughan also noted that Mayfield was his top quarterback in the entire draft class.
Boasting the first and fourth overall picks in the upcoming draft, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that Cleveland will look quarterback with one of those two selections. The team itself was previously reported to be high on Mayfield — something that could be taken to a whole new level with McCloughan on board.
The general consensus is that USC’s Sam Darnold and UCLA’s Josh Rosen are the top quarterbacks in the class. They’re followed in line by Mayfield and Wyoming’s Josh Allen. All four are expected to be first-round picks.
Simply because Cleveland is high on Mayfield, it doesn’t mean the team will use a top-four pick on him. It boasts three second-round picks, including two within the first three selections on Day 2. A trade up for Mayfield should he fall to the latter half of the first round could be in the cards.
It’s something to keep an eye on as the Browns themselves are linked to pretty much every available veteran quarterback between the start of free agency in March and the draft itself the following month.