Browns Projected to Land QB to Compete with Shedeur Sanders in New Lance Zierlein NFL Mock Draft

The Cleveland Browns are projected to select Miami quarterback Carson Beck with the No. 74 overall selection in the latest NFL mock draft from Lance Zierlein of NFL.com. Beck was the only quarterback to go off the board in the second or third rounds in Zierlein's updated mock.

Right now, it's unclear who the Browns' starting quarterback will be in 2026.

Cleveland has three quarterbacks on the roster in Shedeur Sanders (who closed 2025 as QB1), Dillon Gabriel (who was QB1 for six starts before suffering a concussion) and Deshaun Watson, the team's starter in 2024 who suffered a torn Achilles twice and missed the back half of 2024 and all of 2025.

As Zac Jackson of The Athletic noted at the start of Browns' minicamp earlier this week, a quarterback competition is "underway" between the three.

Perhaps a fourth QB could be added to the picture, if Zierlein's mock proves to be accurate foreshadowing.

Beck played four years for the Georgia Bulldogs before transferring to Miami in 2025. He helped lead the Hurricanes to the College Football Playoff national championship game, completing 72.4 percent of his passes for 3,813 yards (8.2 yards per attempt), 30 touchdowns (12 interceptions).

For his career, Beck connected on 69.5 percent of his passes for 11,725 yards (8.4 YPA), 88 touchdowns and 32 picks.

As far as QB options go, two quarterbacks went in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday: Fernando Mendoza to the Las Vegas Raiders (No. 1) and Ty Simpson to the Los Angeles Rams (No. 13).

The B/R NFL Scouting Department has five quarterbacks listed on the top 150 of its big board: Drew Allar of Penn State (No. 103), Garrett Nussmeier of LSU (No. 107), Beck (No. 120), Taylen Green of Arkansas (No. 133) and Cole Payton of North Dakota State (No. 137).

The NFL draft continues on Friday with the second and third rounds beginning at 7 p.m. ET.