2018 NFL mock draft: Cleveland Browns select QB Sam Darnold

The Pride of Detroit Community Mock draft has officially begun. The Cleveland Browns are on the clock with the first overall picks. Here comes Levy’s Beard to the podium, to announce his pick as acting general manager for the Cleveland Browns—who also have the No. 4 pick in the draft.

With the first pick in the 2018 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft, the Cleveland Browns have selected quarterback Sam Darnold from USC>

The floor is yours, Mr. Beard.

“The Cleveland Browns have been the NFL’s perpetual rebuilding team. That’s honestly the best way to describe the Browns. As the perpetual rebuilding team, they’ve had their chance to select a quarterback with eleven first-round picks in the last six years, including five original selections in the top ten. You would think that they would at least take a quarterback with one of those five picks, but, rather, the Browns chose to trade out of the top ten in three of those years, and chose to pick Barkevious Mingo and Trent Richardson with the other two.

When they did select a quarterback in the first round, it was either 28-year-old Brandon Weeden or some guy named Johnny Manziel. Given these factors, my job was pretty clear: select a quarterback. Really, any quarterback. Like most years’ top quarterback prospect, Sam Darnold has the prototypical skills, size, and pedigree to be star in the NFL. He’s 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, put up great numbers at USC, and scouts rave about his “intellect” and “arm-strength,” but a lot of the same were said about the likes of Blake Bortles and Ryan Tannehill. Then again, Bortles and Tannehill would be a marked improvement over whatever store brand quarterback Cleveland chose to peddle out each week last year.

We, of course, won’t know what Darnold really is until he actually starts taking snaps in the NFL, but that isn’t the point. The point is that the Browns weren’t even fully trying to fix their quarterbacking situation for the last decade… or two. Regardless of what Sam Darnold does as a pro, his selection is at least a serious attempt at fixing their biggest problem, so that’s why he’s my pick.”