Can the Cleveland Browns afford to draft another hometown hero?

The Cleveland Browns have tried the hometown hero approach to finding a quarterback with disappointing results. Should they try again with Michigan State’s Connor Cook?

Forgetting that the NFL has become a non-stop 24/7/365 enterprise, I thought February and March were the off-season for the Cleveland Browns and my Dawg Pound Daily gig – until our editors asked us to review potential Browns’ draftees.

Writing about NFL prospects was easier when I was betting college football. Each Saturday began by checking the point spreads and wouldn’t end until the final seconds of a Hawaii Rainbows game just as I was waking up for Sunday morning tennis. With nothing wagered on the outcome this season, however, I only followed my alma mater Northwestern.

Since Dawg Pound Daily‘s draft profiles don’t offer any Northwestern Wildcats to review, it was time to settle for the next best thing: a Big 10 kid from Northeast Ohio in Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook:

• While the Browns might draft a quarterback with the No. 2 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, it better not be Cook, otherwise vice president of football operations Sashi Brown and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta risk losing their Harvard analytics credentials by reaching for a prospect the draftniks have soured on, most moving him out of the first round altogether.
• Cook’s “character concerns” – skipping the Senior Bowl, not being voted Michigan State team captain, comparing himself to Tom Brady (a major sin for any MSU player), being like Johnny Manziel (a player that head coach Hue Jackson has stated his aversion to because of the headaches he brings) – are all “red flags” in Human Resources circles.

However, here’s why the Browns might look to draft Cook if he’s available further down the draft board:

• He fits the AFC North mold at 6-foot-4 and 217 pounds.
• He was a three-year starter who threw for 71 touchdowns and only 22 interceptions in a pro-style offense. Cook put up big numbers in big games against Big 10 competition, and earned MVP honors in the Rose Bowl and two conference championship games. If past performance indicates future success, he blows away all other draft-eligible quarterbacks.
• Michigan State churns out NFL quarterbacks like an auto assembly line – Kirk Cousins, Drew Stanton, Tony Banks, Brian Hoyer, Jim Miller – Cook’s record as a Spartan eclipsed each of them.
• Most importantly, he’s one of us – a Walsh Jesuit grad from Hinkley (whose buzzard has rocked three generations of Northeast Ohioans) who attended Browns games with his dad.

At his 2016 NFL Scouting Combine press conference, Cook was asked about the possibility of playing for the Browns.

“I think it’d be great,” he said. “Obviously, growing up a Browns fan, growing up going to the games as a little kid, watching it and visualizing myself being out there, playing in that stadium, playing in the NFL, it would just be a dream come true. It would be surreal.”

But for every positive bullet point in Cook’s favor, consider this:

• Alabama crushed Cook’s Spartans 38-0 in last season’s BCS semifinal games. If the Browns want to pitch zeroes, they can bring Spergon Wynn back. (We hear he’s available.)
• None of those aforementioned MSU assembly line quarterbacks has ever won an NFL playoff game. Career backup tops their resumes, and while the Redskins’ Kirk Cousins might earn $20 million as a franchise tagged free agent, he’s not even a half-season removed from being benched for Colt McCoy.
• I plead guilty to hopeless romanticism overvaluing Cleveland connections, longing for the next Bernie Kosar, but here’s what has happened when the Browns used the “What’s Nearby” feature on Google maps to find a franchise quarterback: Frye, Charlie; Quinn, Brady; Hoyer, Brian. Yes, it would be “surreal” having Cook’s parents make the 30-minute drive up I-77 to watch their son quarterback the Browns – it would be even more surreal if that drive in December was to watch a game that meant something for Cleveland’s playoff chances.

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Conceding he’s not worth the second overall pick but won’t last until No. 32, the Browns should be wary of trading down to snare Cook midway in the first round, especially given the team’s track record of finagling to draft a Big Ten quarterback – like trading Paul Warfield in his prime for Mike Phipps.

Then NFL Radio’s Jim Miller (yes, the former Michigan State quarterback) raved about Cook’s pro-readiness, his winning skills and his ability to throw an 18-yard Z-double-cross out – whatever that is. How cool would it be, three decades after Kosar, another hometown hero like Connor Cook carries Cleveland to the playoffs?

It almost rekindles memories of another Big 10 quarterback who led the Browns to greatness before my time, but a fellow alum: Northwestern’s Otto Graham.