The Cleveland Browns saw their starting quarterback Deshaun Watson’s 2024 season and, most likely, his career end on Sunday when he tore his Achilles. Now, the Browns will have to make a move at the position for sure next season.
The way Watson played this year looked like it would be his last year on the Browns, but the Achilles injury gave Cleveland the out they needed to move on.
If Cleveland keeps playing like it has for the past five weeks, it will pick in the Top Five of the NFL Draft, and that selection will most likely include a quarterback.
The Browns haven’t drafted a quarterback in the first round since they selected Baker Mayfield with the first overall pick in 2018, but a recent mock draft has them taking their new franchise signal-caller.
Cleveland Browns Take An SEC Quarterback
Gordon McGuinness from Pro Football Focus published a Cleveland Browns mock draft and had the Browns selecting second overall, which would be their pick if the season ended today, and had them choosing Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe.
McGuinness had a lot of good things to say about the Alabama quarterback, and here are his thoughts.
The reality that the Browns face is that they simply have to do something at the quarterback position if Deshaun Watson continues to play like this.
Through six weeks of the season, he has earned a PFF grade below 60.0 in four of six games, all while averaging $46 million per year. Is there a quarterback you would love to draft with the second overall pick in this draft? Maybe not yet. However, waiting until Round 2 isn’t a great strategy, either.
Milroe will compete with Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and MIami’s Cam Ward to be the first quarterback off the board, but as things stand, he is the highest-ranked player at the position on PFF’s Big Board. He’s not making many mistakes, having posted just a 1.8% turnover-worthy play rate through seven weeks.
Milroe is a great athlete and has an awesome arm, but over the past few weeks, he has had a turnover issue, throwing the ball away in key moments. He most likely will need a year to sit and learn the NFL game.
There is a good chance the Cleveland Browns will take a quarterback this April, but even if they don’t, the team will have a new quarterback under center in 2025.
