Cleveland Browns: Josh Rosen bothered executive

The Cleveland Browns wound up picking Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield in the 2018 NFL Draft because he had “it.” Josh Rosen out of UCLA though, just bothered them

The Cleveland Browns are quiet no more. After hardly tipping their hand during the entire draft process, the front office is opening up now.

Or at least vice president of player personnel Alonzo Highsmith is.

After opening up about why they took Baker Mayfield first overall, Highsmith started to go a little deeper into the process. This time he spoke up about why the team elected to go in a different direction than UCLA’s Josh Rosen.

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In a piece by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk the Browns executive says there was just something about Rosen that made them look in other directions.

"“So I asked one of the volleyball coaches, ‘What’s Rosen like?” He said via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “Aaaa, you should probably ask his girlfriend. She’s one of the players. She’s over there. I’m like, ‘All right coach. That’s good enough.’ . . . I don’t know what all this means, but there was something about him that bothered me.”"

Florio points out afterward that his simple conversation couldn’t have led to them deciding Rosen wasn’t worth the No. 1 overall pick. It also feels like a vague piece of a puzzle the Browns put together before the 2018 NFL Draft.

The Chosen-Rosen ended up going No. 10 overall to the Arizona Cardinals and could develop into a star. Many believed he was the most complete quarterback prospect in the draft, but the reports always came back to something character, or injury related.

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"It seems like for the Browns, it was more character concerns. It’s nice that teams start to open up after the draft, but it would be more entertaining if we could find out the rest of the conversations that left Highsmith and the Browns feeling bothered."

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