Personally, I believe the Browns will commit another draft day travesty if they use that pick on yet another quarterback. I've seen many "experts" projecting the Browns to do just that and I certainly hope they resist the urge.
Face it, no quarterback is going to walk into the practice facility and immediately turn around this flailing franchise.
Had they finished 5-11 or 7-9 or even won a game last year, maybe a quarterback could be the difference to between losing a game 28-21 or 31-28.
The Browns averaged 14.63 points per game while allowing 25.63. A quarterback isn't going to single-handily make up the difference.
Nope, the Browns have to start adding talent and depth at key positions.
For the past several weeks, I have bounced back and forth between a running back--no, not Barkley, and a wide receiver and I have come to the conclusion the Browns should draft a receiver with the first pick.
People are going to call me crazy, and that's OK, I'll be patient and see how things shake out in the future because I know the Browns won't heed my advice and select who I believe is the best wide receiver in this draft: Equanimeous St. Brown.
St. Brown measured in at 6-foot-5, 215 pounds.
He has great size and leaping ability, which provides the Browns with a prime target in the red zone.
But, he also has incredible speed having clocked a 4.45-second time in the 40-yard dash at the Notre Dame pro day.
Unlike Manziel, St. Brown has discipline and athletic genes.
His father, John Brown, is a former two-time Mr. Universe and three-time Mr. World in weightlifting. St. Brown has been conditioning his body since birth.
As a sophomore at Notre Dame in 2016, with former Browns quarterback DeShone Kizer throwing passes his way, St. Brown caught 58 passes for 961 yards and nine touchdowns. Had Kizer stayed in South Bend for his senior season, both St. Brown and Kizer would have been more marketable entering the draft.
Kizer needed that extra year to prepare him for the NFL and St. Brown suffered through a season in which the Irish passing game struggled behind Brandon Wimbush and Ian Book.
He caught just 33 passes for 515 yards and four touchdowns.
Jarvis Landry, the newest Brown, is just 5-11. Corey Coleman is 5-11. Josh Gordon is 6-3.
Add St. Brown to that mix, provided Gordon and Coleman remain on the roster, and the Browns have a formidable crop of wide receivers.
St. Brown could become an elite wide receiver. He has all the intangibles, size, speed, focus, commitment. He has excelled at every level thus far.
He has proven to be a reliable weapon and the type of game-breaker the Browns need.
His stats last season aren't indicative of his potential. Instead, they're an indictment on how poor the Irish offense performed behind two inexperienced quarterbacks.
NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein agrees:
"St. Brown's combination of size and speed will be coveted by offenses looking for a prospect who can create throwing windows down the field with his ability to separate as the route progresses. St. Brown's competitive nature needs to improve as does his play strength to elude early pressure from physical cornerbacks. He has never been a volume target and has just three 100-yard games in his career. At this stage, St. Brown is more of a threat than a weapon and his ceiling may be an average starter or WR3."
Keep in mind, Zierlein isn't putting St. Brown's lack of production into context.
With Kizer at the helm, St. Brown averaged 16.57 yards per catch (58 of them) and scored a touchdown every 6.4 catches. Without Kizer, he averaged 15.6 yards per catch and scored a touchdown every 8.25 catches.
Using some perspective, Notre Dame threw for 3,051 yards in 2016. That's when Kizer and St. Brown connected 58 times. The Irish threw for just 2,326 yards in 2017 behind Wimbush and Book.
Take a look at the strengths and weaknesses Zierlein pointed out for St. Brown:
Strengths
- Tall target with long limbs
- Plays outside and from slot
- Early push into routes with quickness to decelerate and open and uncover on comebacks
- Effortless glider
- Much faster than he looks
- Easy maneuvering around route traffic
- Staccato footwork provides above average change of direction without slowing
- Has build-up speed to overtake cornerbacks as vertical route progresses to third level
- Willing to work over the middle
- Able to eliminate pursuit angles and hit big runs after catch on crossing routes
- Showed elevated concentration on tougher catches in 2016
- Good feel for use of length to overcome cornerbacks down the sideline
- Very few focus drops during his career
- Has speed to hit the chunk play
Weaknesses
- Competitiveness feels optional for him at times
- Needs to play with more consistent urgency
- Struggles with physical cornerbacks (Crowded and harassed by North Carolina's MJ Stewart and finished with just one catch)
- Routes and stems are rounded
- Needs to do better at disguising route breaks
- Doesn't create as much downfield separation as he could with better route leverage
- Doesn't extend to pluck and allows throws to get into him
- Hand strength is below average
- Has catches that turn into drops due to lack of hand strength through contact
- Body positioning and ball adjustments down the field are just OK
Reggie Wayne, you know, a guy that actually played the position in the NFL, has a different take.
Wayne considers St. Brown as the second best wide receiver in the draft.
"This is another big target out of Notre Dame," Wayne said. "For a tall guy, he runs pretty good routes. His stats last year, you may look at it and say, 'I'm not sure,' but his quarterback play was not the best...he runs great routes, great hands, he's going to surprise some people."
Incidentally, like most, Wayne has Calvin Ridley as the top receiver in the draft. Ridley is 6-foot and he runs the 40 in 1/10 of a second faster than St. Brown. I'll take the size all day long.
The last skill player the Browns drafted out of Alabama didn't fare so well. Too much risk in that pick for me.
Watch the first catch in St. Brown's highlights below and tell me he doesn't have hand strength.
Watch the second clip and tell me his competitiveness feels optional for him at times. Watch the TD catch clip against Michigan State and tell me he doesn't adjust his body to the ball downfield.
Go to the 4:24 mark and watch that catch. Dude has hand strength.
Watch this video as well.
The analyst discussed how he was able to see every target thrown his way and the ball just wasn't getting there. That wasn't a lack of production on St. Brown's part. That's bad QB play.
Some may consider St. Brown a sleeper or late round pick...and the Browns likely will agree. Remember this blog post in a couple of years and we can revisit it to see how my projection fared.
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