2010 NFL Draft: Why the Cleveland Browns Should Take Colt McCoy

With Cleveland Brown's President Mike Holmgren’s statements yesterday regarding the Browns quarterback situation, it’s time to consider that they may take Colt McCoy in the draft.

Holmgren said he doesn’t want a quarterback competition going into training camp, but he hasn’t endorsed either Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson. The two veteran quarterbacks the Browns might be interested in and who may be available are Matt Hasselback and Donovan McNabb.

For the sake of argument, just assume nothing will happen via free agency or trades for McNabb, Hasselback, or even Michael Vick, since his name gets tossed in there as well.

If Holmgren thinks Quinn is not the future of the franchise, he has to look at who’s available in the draft and go from there. Since the Browns pick seventh this year, there’s a good chance Jimmy Clausen and/or Sam Bradford both will be gone, and even if one of them is available, the Browns need to spend their first-round pick on the defense.

So assuming the Rams draft Ndamukong Suh in the first round and the Washington Redskins get good news from Dr. James Andrews and take Bradford with their first-round pick, it brings us back to the Rams at the beginning of the second round.

The way most mock drafts, including my own, are looking now, the Rams and the Redskins are the only two teams looking at quarterbacks in the first round. Clausen still would be available in the second round if this theory holds out, so the Rams take him there.

ESPN’s Mel Kiper has the Bills taking Jimmy Clausen in the first round, but I’m not sure the Bills want to spend first-round money on a quarterback just yet, so I’m going to disagree with Kiper on that pick.

This leaves McCoy on the board for the Browns, and he becomes a veritable steal with the 38th pick, despite some of the knocks he gets from various draft gurus.

McCoy has a career 147.41 QB rating through four years at Texas. He’s thrown for more than 3,000 yards the last three years and still had more than 2,000 yards his freshman year. He’s played in big bowl games and torched Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl last year.

While he was injured in the first series of the BCS Championship game, his stats the rest of the season, while showing a slight drop compared to 2008, weren't significant enough to get upset about.

McCoy gets bonuses for his accuracy, which is something both Browns' quarterbacks lacked in 2009. However, his arm strength and size have been getting knocks from the scouts.

Browns Head Coach Eric Mangini does value a quarterback who can control the offense, and McCoy showed those talents in his four years at Texas, so this would bring Mangini on board with this pick should Holmgren want it.

McCoy also is very mobile, throws relatively few interceptions compared to attempts—12 INTs compared to 470 attempts isn’t that bad for the kind of offense Texas runs—and has developed a reputation for being an intelligent player who can read defenses.

Most importantly, when you look back at the 2009 Fiesta Bowl, McCoy showed he could perform in a “Big Game” situation and pulled out a victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Browns haven’t had a “Big Game” since 2007, when Anderson choked against the Cincinnati Bengals and cost the team their playoff spot.

Quinn has performed well in primetime in his short career, but to be fair, his biggest game probably was against the Pittsburgh Steelers last month, and the Steelers were in the middle of a tailspin that cost them their playoff berth.

A lot can happen between now and April, but if McCoy still is on the board when the Browns’ turn comes around in the second round, don’t be surprised to see a quarterback from Texas get his name called.

For Part One of my first 2010 NFL Mock Draft, click here. For Part Two, click here.