Cleveland Browns: The QB, Draft Obsession Must Go Away
By Ric McElroy
Cleveland Browns fans, pundits and scribes are quarterback obsessed and our Voice of the Fan can’t take it any longer.
It’s the end of February and the NFL Combine is right around the corner. Not to mention open season on free agents. This is not a read on whom the Cleveland Browns should draft or sign in free agency. It’s more about what is needed to have this team get out of being a laughing stock and climb out of the basement of the AFC North!
It’s more position oriented and what they, in general, should consider doing. They have so many holes and even drafting a Andrew Luck isn’t going to do a whole lot to accomplish what they and the fans want.
Look around the NFL. The Cowboys were picking fourth at this time a year ago. Dallas had Tony Romo and yet still came up short of the Super Bowl. Romo couldn’t get out of the first-round of playoffs!
In the 2016 Draft, Dallas hit the lottery with Dak Prescott and capitalized on their first-round selection by taking Ezekiel Elliot–but it wasn’t just these two draft picks that did it!
They drafted a team around the quarterback and a defense to go with it. This should be the blueprint the Browns follow.
The Cowboys found their quarterback after struggling through a Romo injury plagued season. Call it luck. Whatever. The point is Dallas had a good team and when the kid got the chance to play, he turned out to be an MVP candidate.
Minnesota and Oakland needed a quarterback as much as the Browns did in 2014. Remember Joe Banner’s $100,000 analytics study? It said take Teddy Bridgewater. The Vikings did just that at No. 32, while Browns got “Manzieled” at No. 22. Bridgewater showed tons of promise until a late August ACL injury put his career in Jeopardy.
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Raiders quarterback David Carr, taken in the second round (36th overall), appears poised for a huge fourth season after helping Oakland reach the playoffs in 2016.
Meanwhile, the Browns since 1999? No matter the owner, front office or coach, the powers-that-be continue to walk blindly through this mine-laden path!
Sure if there is a Luck or even a Carr or Bridgewater Cleveland should jump at the chance to draft that player, but a quarterback is not the sole answer.
Let’s not be wasteful and squander anymore of these high picks reaching for a quarterback who is a fourth rounder. Use these picks to bolster a weak defense or bad offensive line. That seems to be where the abundance of talent is in this draft.
If you can’t protect the quarterback or stop opposing offenses, not even Tom Brady, Andrew Luck or Aaron Rodgers isn’t going to win much.
Next: 8 Free Agents The Browns Should Target
Time to quit obsessing over a franchise quarterback and build the team, then take your shot at “THE GUY” that completes your franchise!