The Buffalo Bills want to draft a quarterback in the 2018 NFL Draft, and multiple reports have them linked to Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen. According to Peter King, an unnamed source told him that the Cleveland Browns also covet the big-armed prospect.
King wrote that this “friend” of Cleveland general manager John Dorsey said that he would be “surprised if [Dorsey] traded down” in this year’s draft. He believes that Dorsey wishes to select Allen first overall, and he also thinks that the GM would like to retain the fourth overall selection in the draft rather than trade it. The friend speculates that the Browns would then take Penn State running back Saquan Barkley fourth overall, giving the Browns “two offensive cornerstones for the next eight to ten years.”
King finds the latter bit of information to be good news for the Browns, saying that the club has been “very good at trading and stockpiling, and not very good at drafting,” over the last few seasons.
Selecting Allen first would mean that Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, and Baker Mayfield, quarterbacks who are generally regarded as safer bets to succeed in the NFL than Allen, would be available for quarterback-needy teams like the New York Jets, the Denver Broncos, and our Buffalo Bills. The New York Giants could select one of them to groom as an eventual successor to veteran Eli Manning, and the Miami Dolphins could surprise and add one of the rookies to replace Ryan Tannehill. Another team could look to engineer a trade up, such as the Arizona Cardinals, the Los Angeles Chargers, or the New Orleans Saints, but none of them have the kind of draft capital that the Bills have in order to make such a move up the board.
At this time of year, all draft rumors should be taken with a considerable grain of salt; however, where there is smoke, there is often fire, and there are plenty of plumes with Allen’s name in them coming from different banks of Lake Erie.