The NCAA is at the root of all of Cleveland's problems in the present day. That may seem like an exaggeration, but I'm about to explain why.
It all started on July 1, 2021, nearly five years ago to the day when the NCAA began allowing athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness.
It was a belated reckoning for a corrupt organization that made billions of dollars off an unpaid workforce laughably dubbed "student-athletes" specifically to avoid paying them. It was never fair and it never should have been legal. Evidently, the NCAA was skating by with a nothing-to-see-here attitude for as long as it could, knowing the house of cards would come tumbling down any day.
Due to the NCAA's heavy-handed governance, however, college athletes jumped at the opportunity to go pro as it represented their chance to finally earn some money from their hard work. While it's inherently a good thing that college athletes are compensated while they're working for the universities they play for, it's impossible to miss how the trickle-down has affected the NFL.
The Browns and other QB-needy teams have been hit hard by the NIL era
A few teams beyond the Browns — including the Jets, Steelers, and Colts — have been hit hard by the trend highlighted here, to varying degrees. As the earning power of being a college quarterback exceeds what some Day 2 and Day 3 picks make over four years, the talent pool is shrinking in the NFL Draft.
In the past two drafts, the Browns have picked No. 2 and No. 6. Regardless of that fact, there haven't been any quarterbacks worthy of a selection that high outside of the top pick in each year. It's as Cleveland-coded as can be that both years they had high draft picks, there has been only one slam-dunk first-round prospect per year (Cam Ward in 2025 and Fernando Mendoza in 2026).
That's not just lucklessness. It's an unfortunate outcome of a pendulum that has swung the opposite way after a century of wretchedness.
Case in point: last year's presumptive No. 2 quarterback, Oregon's Dante Moore, opted to stay in college for another year rather than likely being selected by the New York Jets. Besides the unmistakable shade cast upon the Jets franchise (that very well may be in position to select him again in 2027), it speaks to the shift of power in college sports.
Moore is estimated to be making between $7 million and $8 million this season for the Ducks. Shedeur Sanders' four-year deal with the Browns is worth a total of $4.6 million. The numbers speak for themselves.
Meanwhile, teams like the Browns are forced to choose between washed-up veterans and late-round draft picks in the hopes of getting lucky. The tide is turning, though. For all of the quarterbacks who stayed in school, there has been a growing group that appears poised to come out in 2027. The backlog is producing a surplus at precisely the right time.
Even if some members of the class opt for another year of college football because of the aforementioned reasons, the class is shaping up to feature anywhere between five and eight highly touted signal-callers. Those are good odds for the Browns, especially considering they have two first-round picks in this next draft. Cleveland has the capital to maneuver the board at will to get their guy.
The group, consisting of Texas' Arch Manning, Oregon's Moore, Ohio State's Julian Sayin, South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers, Mississippi's Trinidad Chambliss, USC's Jayden Maiava, Notre Dame's C.J. Carr, and the now unaffiliated Brendan Sorsby, is sure to produce someone for the Browns to draft.
History has shown that they won't all be hits. Let's hope the long-suffering Browns can find themselves on the right side of history this time around. The fans deserve it.
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