[FONT="]CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A day before the draft, it could be down to Josh Allen or Baker Mayfield at No. 1 overall for the Browns, league sources tell cleveland.com.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Browns have given strong consideration to all of the four top quarterbacks in the draft -- Allen, Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen -- but the choices seem to be narrowing to the cannon-armed passer from Wyoming and the Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma, the sources say.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Many experts still believe the Browns will draft Sam Darnold Thursday night, but sources say the Browns have cooled on the USC passer in recent days and that Allen and Mayfield have surpassed him.[/FONT]
[FONT="]92.3 The Fan's Dustin Fox, who's part of the Browns' in-house broadcast team, also reported last Friday he was told it was down to Allen and Mayfield, and Dan Patrick reported on Monday that an NFL scout told him the same thing.[/FONT]
[FONT="]One well-connected top-level NFL personnel executive has been insisting to cleveland.com since the Senior Bowl in January that Browns GM John Dorsey will take Allen. "You can take it to the bank,'' the executive said again this week.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But there's been a growing buzz in recent days that the Browns love Mayfield, despite his 6-0 height and maturity issues.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Dorsey has liked Mayfield since studying him hard when the GM was out of work in the fall, and Browns draft consultant Scot McCloughan, who's been at Dorsey's side throughout the pre-draft process, is on record as saying that Mayfield would be his guy.[/FONT]
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Baker Mayfield: NFL Draft 2018 video profile
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Word circulated at the Senior Bowl that McCloughan was strongly recommending Mayfield to Dorsey.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In an interview with the Doug Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Radio in October, the former Redskins and 49ers general manager revealed that Mayfield was his top choice from this rich quarterback class -- and even compared him to Hall of Famer Brett Favre, with whom McCloughan spent six years in Green Bay.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"He reminds me of a shorter version of Brett Favre," McCloughan told Gottlieb."Tough guy. He can throw it. And he's very confident, and he's not afraid whatsoever, whatsoever. He's a battler. I know saying Brett Favre's a big name, and I was around him for a while, but this guy has talent."[/FONT]
[FONT="]In December, Dorsey told Sports Illustrated that he had already seen six of Mayfield's games this season.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"I saw [Mayfield] at Kansas this year, in the OU-Kansas game,'' he said. "You're darn right he's a good quarterback, no matter how tall he is. Some would say he's too short, but I would ask you: How tall is Russell Wilson? How tall is Chase Daniel?"[/FONT]
[FONT="]While several personnel executives at the Senior Bowl expressed concern to cleveland.com about Mayfield's character and maturity, Dorsey defended him.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"You guys create a narrative that you try to portray him as (a character concern),'' Dorsey told cleveland.com and another outlet.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Reminded that the Heisman Trophy winner was arrested last year for public intoxication, and that he taunted the Kansas sideline with the infamous crotch grab, and planted a flag on the Block O at Ohio State, Dorsey didn't back down.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"Every young man will make a mistake in his life, I bet you,'' he said. "And I think he's very remorseful of that mistake and I think he's moved forward from that, and he's trying to make himself a better person, going through the process.''[/FONT]
[FONT="]As for the crotch grab, which he witnessed in person, Dorsey seemed to appreciate the fieriness.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"Well, he made the fans of Kansas upset, I can tell you that,'' Dorsey said.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Browns have loved the way Mayfield's respond to him, and one source said he was impressive on his visit to the Browns facility.[/FONT]
[FONT="] "I kind of feel like he's the Pied Piper of Oklahoma football,'' said Jackson. "The workout, I will share this with you, when we walked into the building, he made this sound. He just kind of came out of nowhere. He kind of went, 'Hee, hee!' And all the players in the building started going, 'Hee, hee!' And here they go. It's the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen. That shows you something about what he means to young men and how he leads them. And that's who Baker Mayfield is."[/FONT]
[FONT="]Of course, the Mayfield buzz could be an attempt to get a team to try to trade up to No. 1 or No. 4. The Jets at No. 3 are said to like Mayfield, and they've already called the Browns once about trading up to No. 1, when on their way up from No. 6 to No. 3 in a trade with the Colts.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Teams also like Allen, who's raw but has tremendous upside potential if he can continue to improve his accuracy, which has already come a long way since the end of his season. Allen was the "it'' pick for the Browns last week. The Jets even scrambled to bring Darnold in for a last-minute visit last week after it became apparent the Browns might take Allen, according to The New York Daily News.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But it's also possible that the Browns experienced the same thing with Darnold that some other teams did, that he has a ways to go when it comes to processing the pro game. The youngest of the top prospects at 20, Darnold has played only one full season in high school and one full season at USC, where he went 20-4. At times, the inexperience showed in the pre-draft process.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Bleacher Report analyst Chris Simms, a former NFL quarterback, heard the same thing about the USC product.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"He's the rawest, and really from every NFL executive that I've talked to, they've told me that his football knowledge was the least of the five quarterbacks,'' Simms told 92.3 The Fan's Bull and Fox on Tuesday. "So to me, that doesn't say safest.''[/FONT]
[FONT="]Again, it could be a smokescreen or some gamesmanship coming out of Berea. But at least a few league sources believe it's coming down to down to Allen and Mayfield for the Browns at No. 1, or wherever they take their QB.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Browns have given strong consideration to all of the four top quarterbacks in the draft -- Allen, Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen -- but the choices seem to be narrowing to the cannon-armed passer from Wyoming and the Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma, the sources say.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Many experts still believe the Browns will draft Sam Darnold Thursday night, but sources say the Browns have cooled on the USC passer in recent days and that Allen and Mayfield have surpassed him.[/FONT]
[FONT="]92.3 The Fan's Dustin Fox, who's part of the Browns' in-house broadcast team, also reported last Friday he was told it was down to Allen and Mayfield, and Dan Patrick reported on Monday that an NFL scout told him the same thing.[/FONT]
[FONT="]One well-connected top-level NFL personnel executive has been insisting to cleveland.com since the Senior Bowl in January that Browns GM John Dorsey will take Allen. "You can take it to the bank,'' the executive said again this week.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But there's been a growing buzz in recent days that the Browns love Mayfield, despite his 6-0 height and maturity issues.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Dorsey has liked Mayfield since studying him hard when the GM was out of work in the fall, and Browns draft consultant Scot McCloughan, who's been at Dorsey's side throughout the pre-draft process, is on record as saying that Mayfield would be his guy.[/FONT]
[FONT="]<iframe id="player_0Oefx50a1cA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="1" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0Oefx50a1cA?rel=0&autoplay=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cleveland.com&widgetid=2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; right: 0px; width: 533px; height: 299.813px; visibility: visible; display: block;"></iframe>
Baker Mayfield: NFL Draft 2018 video profile
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Word circulated at the Senior Bowl that McCloughan was strongly recommending Mayfield to Dorsey.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In an interview with the Doug Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Radio in October, the former Redskins and 49ers general manager revealed that Mayfield was his top choice from this rich quarterback class -- and even compared him to Hall of Famer Brett Favre, with whom McCloughan spent six years in Green Bay.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"He reminds me of a shorter version of Brett Favre," McCloughan told Gottlieb."Tough guy. He can throw it. And he's very confident, and he's not afraid whatsoever, whatsoever. He's a battler. I know saying Brett Favre's a big name, and I was around him for a while, but this guy has talent."[/FONT]
[FONT="]In December, Dorsey told Sports Illustrated that he had already seen six of Mayfield's games this season.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"I saw [Mayfield] at Kansas this year, in the OU-Kansas game,'' he said. "You're darn right he's a good quarterback, no matter how tall he is. Some would say he's too short, but I would ask you: How tall is Russell Wilson? How tall is Chase Daniel?"[/FONT]
[FONT="]While several personnel executives at the Senior Bowl expressed concern to cleveland.com about Mayfield's character and maturity, Dorsey defended him.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"You guys create a narrative that you try to portray him as (a character concern),'' Dorsey told cleveland.com and another outlet.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Reminded that the Heisman Trophy winner was arrested last year for public intoxication, and that he taunted the Kansas sideline with the infamous crotch grab, and planted a flag on the Block O at Ohio State, Dorsey didn't back down.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"Every young man will make a mistake in his life, I bet you,'' he said. "And I think he's very remorseful of that mistake and I think he's moved forward from that, and he's trying to make himself a better person, going through the process.''[/FONT]
[FONT="]As for the crotch grab, which he witnessed in person, Dorsey seemed to appreciate the fieriness.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"Well, he made the fans of Kansas upset, I can tell you that,'' Dorsey said.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Browns have loved the way Mayfield's respond to him, and one source said he was impressive on his visit to the Browns facility.[/FONT]
[FONT="] "I kind of feel like he's the Pied Piper of Oklahoma football,'' said Jackson. "The workout, I will share this with you, when we walked into the building, he made this sound. He just kind of came out of nowhere. He kind of went, 'Hee, hee!' And all the players in the building started going, 'Hee, hee!' And here they go. It's the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen. That shows you something about what he means to young men and how he leads them. And that's who Baker Mayfield is."[/FONT]
[FONT="]Of course, the Mayfield buzz could be an attempt to get a team to try to trade up to No. 1 or No. 4. The Jets at No. 3 are said to like Mayfield, and they've already called the Browns once about trading up to No. 1, when on their way up from No. 6 to No. 3 in a trade with the Colts.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Teams also like Allen, who's raw but has tremendous upside potential if he can continue to improve his accuracy, which has already come a long way since the end of his season. Allen was the "it'' pick for the Browns last week. The Jets even scrambled to bring Darnold in for a last-minute visit last week after it became apparent the Browns might take Allen, according to The New York Daily News.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But it's also possible that the Browns experienced the same thing with Darnold that some other teams did, that he has a ways to go when it comes to processing the pro game. The youngest of the top prospects at 20, Darnold has played only one full season in high school and one full season at USC, where he went 20-4. At times, the inexperience showed in the pre-draft process.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Bleacher Report analyst Chris Simms, a former NFL quarterback, heard the same thing about the USC product.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"He's the rawest, and really from every NFL executive that I've talked to, they've told me that his football knowledge was the least of the five quarterbacks,'' Simms told 92.3 The Fan's Bull and Fox on Tuesday. "So to me, that doesn't say safest.''[/FONT]
[FONT="]Again, it could be a smokescreen or some gamesmanship coming out of Berea. But at least a few league sources believe it's coming down to down to Allen and Mayfield for the Browns at No. 1, or wherever they take their QB.[/FONT]
