The Cleveland Browns should not draft a QB in Round 1
The Cleveland Browns have the No. 8 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and should avoid drafting a quarterback.
The Cleveland Browns have a roster filled with holes. Having 12 draft picks in the 2016 NFL Draft will help begin the process of rebuilding the roster.
The quarterback position is one that needs improving, but not necessarily in 2016.
Josh McCown and Robert Griffin III are the main options at QB right now, but there has been talk of drafting a quarterback Thursday night.
The talk since January surrounded both Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, and who the Browns would select second overall. All that talk became obsolete once the Browns traded down to the eighth overall pick in the draft.
But the talk of drafting a quarterback in the first round has not died down, as Paxton Lynch’s name has surfaced as a possible pick for the Browns in the first round.
Lynch is a great quarterback prospect, but drafting him in the first round may not be the best move.
He would be a reach at No. 8, so drafting him there does not seem to be the likely option. A more likely option would be for the Browns to trade down again, this time from the No. 8 pick to a slot where they could acquire more picks and still draft Lynch.
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That move would involve some risk, which makes trading down from the No. 32 pick to draft Lynch immediately the best option if the team does indeed want to take him in the first round.
But there is no need to invest in a quarterback so early in this year’s draft. Drafting a QB in the first round means that player is being groomed to be the starter in the near future. That is ideal for teams who are close to being successful, but the Browns are not that kind of team. So many other parts must be fixed before a quarterback would have any chance of success in Cleveland.
The investment of drafting Lynch would be too great for a team so far away from a winning season.
A smarter move would be to take a quarterback, such as Kevin Hogan or Connor Cook, later on in the draft. This would be much less of an investment, and would allow the Browns to bolster other positions that must be improved in order to allow any quarterback to have a chance at success.
The benefit of taking a quarterback later on is that there are much lower expectations than if they took Lynch in the first round.
Lynch would be expected to start either this year or next, and would likely be rushed in before he was ready. If a quarterback is taken later, any success would be a bonus, as the player would only be focusing on career development as opposed to facing the pressure of being rushed onto the field with high expectations.
McCown and Griffin are more than capable of starting while the front office rebuilds the rest of the team. Adding another first round quarterback to the fray would only lead to the same problems seen in the recent past.