2018 NFL Mock Draft: Latest Prospect Predictions Before AFC, NFC Championships

With only four teams left in the playoffs, 28 franchises have turned their eyes to the offseason, with preparations beginning for free agency and the NFL draft.

Below is a mock draft, along with a deeper dive on the player who is going No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Browns: Josh Allen.

Mock Draft

1. Cleveland Browns: Josh Allen, QB, Wyoming

2. New York Giants: Josh Rosen, QB, UCLA

3. Indianapolis Colts: Bradley Chubb, DE, NC State

4. Cleveland Browns (from Houston): Saquon Barkley, RB, Penn State

5. Denver Broncos: Quenton Nelson, G, Notre Dame

6. New York Jets: Sam Darnold, QB, USC

7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Connor Williams, OT, Texas

8. Chicago Bears: Minkah Fitzpatrick, S, Alabama

9.* San Francisco 49ers: Roquan Smith, LB, Georgia

10.* Oakland Raiders: Mike McGlinchey, OT, Notre Dame

11. Miami Dolphins: Derrius Guice, RB, LSU

12. Cincinnati Bengals: Rashaan Evans, LB, Alabama

13. Washington: Baker Mayfield, QB, Oklahoma

14. Green Bay Packers: Marcus Davenport, DE/OLB, UTSA

15. Arizona Cardinals: Calvin Ridley, WR, Alabama

16. Baltimore Ravens: Courtland Sutton, WR, SMU

17. Los Angeles Chargers: Orlando Brown, OT, Oklahoma

18. Seattle Seahawks: Arden Key, DE/OLB, LSU

19. Dallas Cowboys: Da'Ron Payne, DT, Alabama

20. Detroit Lions: Harold Landry, DE/OLB, Boston College

21. Buffalo Bills: Malik Jefferson, LB, Texas

22. Buffalo Bills (from Kansas City): Vita Vea, DT, Washington

23. Los Angeles Rams: Denzel Ward, CB, Ohio State

24. Carolina Panthers: James Washington, WR, Oklahoma State

25. Tennessee Titans: Joshua Jackson, CB, Iowa

26. Atlanta Falcons: Derwin James, S, Florida State

27. New Orleans Saints: Sam Hubbard, DE, Ohio State

28. Pittsburgh Steelers: Tremaine Edmunds, LB, Virginia Tech

29. Jacksonville Jaguars: Dallas Goedert, TE, South Dakota State

30. Minnesota Vikings: Chukwuma Okorafor, OT, Western Michigan

31. Philadelphia Eagles: Billy Price, G/C, Ohio State

32. New England Patriots: Carlton Davis, CB, Auburn

Oakland and San Francisco will flip a coin to determine the Nos. 9 and 10 picks.

Analysis

Matthew Holst/Getty Images

It's impossible to say which player the Browns will draft at this point. And this early in the draft process, it's equally difficult to nail down which player they should select. Go back to mock drafts from Jan. 2016, for instance, and you won't see Carson Wentz as a top-two pick (and all he did this year was put together an MVP-worthy season before tearing his ACL).

So we have to analyze the top selection more generally. For starters, it would be a shocker if Cleveland didn't use the pick on a quarterback. It's a position that has been an issue since the organization was brought back in 1999.

So what direction might the team go with the pick? Early reports seem to indicate that Josh Allen could be the apple of the team's eye.

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of that selection. Despite Allen's size and arm strength, he took a step back in 2017, throwing for just 1,812 yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing only 56.3 percent of his passes.

That was a far cry from his more impressive 2016, when he posted 3,203 passing yards and 28 touchdowns, albeit throwing for 15 interceptions and completing 56 percent of his throws.

But you can't judge Allen on stats alone. He had poor offensive line and wide receiver play to deal with, as Wyoming wasn't exactly brimming with talent.

"We had an exodus," his former head coach, Craig Bohl, said of the team's roster in November, per Albert Breer of The MMQB. Bohl continued:

"Every player who touched the football last year was on an NFL roster, and that's not typical of what we usually have at the University of Wyoming. ... Whenever we make a good play now, more of it's on him. And we appreciate the guys around him, but the easy throws, plays that were made, they're not there. It forces you to play better. And he's done that."

He also dealt with a shoulder issue that cost him the last two games of the regular season. 

But despite those hurdles, his tools jump off the screen, as Bucky Brooks of NFL.com wrote in December: 

"He is arguably the most talented passer in college football when it comes to his ability to throw with zip, velocity, touch, and range from a stationary position or on the move. There isn't a throw in the book that he can't make and that unlimited range makes him an offensive coordinator's dream at the position.

"Whether it's making 'pick-and-stick' throws off catch, rock and fire action or throwing darts on 'drive throws,' Allen fires lasers to his receivers on the perimeter. He complements those short and intermediate throws with high-arcing rainbows on vertical throws that fall perfectly over his designated receiver's inside or outside shoulder."

There are questions about his pocket awareness and his accuracy, however. He is undoubtedly a project. Allen has the raw talent to become a player like Ben Roethlisberger, though his college play suggests he may never be more than a player like Blake Bortles. And while Bortles would be an upgrade for the Browns, he's not the sort of player you want to draft No. 1 overall.

On the other hand, the Browns can afford to take on a project with Allen's upside at the position. Nobody expects them to be great in 2018, after all, and if they draft a player like Saquon Barkley, it would take a lot of pressure off any player serving as quarterback.

"Coaches are going to see [Allen] and imagine everything he can be, and they're going to be all over their front offices to take him," an AFC front office official told Dan Graziano of ESPN.com. "He's just really raw, so you have to make sure he goes to a place where the coaching is solid and knows what he needs. The talent is all there."

And keep in mind none of the quarterbacks in this draft class are without question marks. Josh Rosen has the sort of polarizing personality that shouldn't bother a lot of NFL personnel men but will. Sam Darnold has some mechanical and on-field decision-making concerns. Baker Mayfield doesn't have the ideal size, and there will be questions about his maturity.

Darnold is the safer all-around prospect who has less raw upside than Allen. Rosen is the safer choice on the field, though his personality and questions about his leadership perhaps make him riskier in the intangibles department. Mayfield's numbers and production jump off the page, but his size and lack of any one elite skill do not.

There are plenty of arguments to be made about why the Browns shouldn't select Allen at No. 1. But if they believe he has the highest ceiling of the bunch—and has the ability and willingness to put in the work to reach it—he's a justifiable pick for Cleveland atop the draft.