Mel Kiper making it up as he goes along with latest mock draft

The Cleveland Browns wind up with a questionable selection at the top of Mel Kiper’s latest mock draft.

The Cleveland Browns will be the center of speculation for the next few weeks as they hold the No. 1 overall and No. 4 overall selections in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Everyone will be tossing out guesses as to what the Browns will do draft weekend – and make no mistake, everything is a guess because there is absolutely no way that general manager John Dorsey is going to tell anyone what the team’s draft plan is.

That makes it hard to say that any particular mock draft is “wrong,” but if you could, it would probably be the third mock draft that ESPN’s Mel Kiper released on Wednesday.

In the mock, Kiper continues to push Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen as the top choice:

"No change here from my first two mock drafts. The Browns are zeroing in on a quarterback with the first overall pick, and Allen has crushed the pre-draft process. The addition of Tyrod Taylor allows Allen, who is the most raw of the top quarterback prospects in this class, to sit on the sideline and adjust to the speed of the NFL. Cleveland doesn’t have to play Allen immediately, which really hurt DeShone Kizer in 2017."

Allen is tantalizing, for sure, because of his size (6-foot-5 and 233 pounds) and his “big arm.” That’s nice, as far as it goes, but there is a problem that is so big that it dwarves Allen’s big arm.

He simply is not very good at passing the ball as, in two years as a starter for the Cowboys against competition that was average at best, Allen only completed 56.2 percent of his passes.

As passing the ball is a key asset for a quarterback, it would seem like Allen not being very good at it would be a problem, but Kiper is here to assure everyone that is not the case:

Shoot, if completion percentage is no longer an issue, well maybe the Browns should consider Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, who passed for 7,203 yards and 57 touchdowns the past two seasons (compared to 5,015 yard and 44 touchdowns for Allen) and rushed for 3,172 yards and 39 touchdowns.

Jackson even finished with a completion percentage (57.6) that was just a tick higher than Allen.

Apparently, at least according to Kiper, not all completions are the same, however:

Kiper regained his equilibrium a bit with the Browns pick at No. 4, although it still is a bit questionable a he mocks Penn State running back Saquon Barkley at that spot, according to 247sports.com:

"“I suspect general manager John Dorsey would be thrilled if he got his quarterback at No. 1 and Barkley at No. 4. My top-ranked prospect in this class, Barkley would make the Browns better on day one as an elite back who will help in the passing game. If Dorsey & Co. decide to try to grab a running back later in the draft, this scenario would allow Cleveland to target the top defender on its board. Alabama defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick and NC State edge rusher Bradley Chubb are both in play here.”"

Selecting Barkley at least makes sense in that he is talented and productive, having rushed for 3,843 yards and 43 touchdowns in three seasons with the Nittany Lions.

It wouldn’t be a horrible pick, but as Kiper points out, the Browns can easily draft a running back in the second round – or skip one all together this year because they have Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson on the roster – and make a pick to boost the defense.

To circle back to our opening point, this is all just opinion on Kiper’s part, albeit opinion backed by some pretty faulty logic. Dorsey is not listening to anyone outside of team headquarters when it comes to the draft, so what Kiper or any other draft “experts” believe is mostly inconsequential.

Next: Browns trade Cody Kessler to Jacksonville

The best part of all this is that we are just 30 days away from knowing, once and for all, just which quarterback the Browns are taking with the draft’s top selection.