2018 NFL Draft Rumors: Todd McShay Sources Predicting Browns Take Josh Allen

The Cleveland Browns are leaning toward former Wyoming Cowboys quarterback Josh Allen with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft, ESPN's Todd McShay reported on a Wednesday conference call (h/t NJ Advance Media's Darryl Slater).

According to McShay, the Browns are seriously considering Allen along with USC Trojans quarterback Sam Darnold, with Allen holding an edge at the moment.

The Ringer's Riley McAtee argued taking Allen first overall would solidify the current front office's shift away from the general thinking of the previous regime.

Sashi Brown, Cleveland's former executive vice president of football operations, took a more analytical approach to team-building. Because of that, Brown may not have been all that enamored with Allen, who didn't post encouraging numbers at Wyoming.

Allen threw for 5,066 yards, 44 touchdowns and 21 interceptions and completed 56.2 percent of his passes in three seasons at Wyoming. The picture doesn't improve when you look beyond those stats, either:

ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. provided the general counterpoint from the skeptics of Allen's underwhelming metrics when he said, "Stats are for losers in my opinion. The guy won," per Matthew Fairburn of Syracuse.com.

Allen's stats aren't demonstrably worse than those of Carson Wentz, who had a 64.1 completion percentage, 5,115 passing yards, 45 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in college, and that was in the FCS. Wentz has so far justified the Philadelphia Eagles' investment of trading up to select him second overall in 2016.

But for a franchise that has struggled so much to develop a franchise quarterback, taking Allen presents a big risk. Although the Browns stabilized the quarterback position in the short term by acquiring Tyrod Taylor, Allen would do major long-term damage if he fails to live up to the hype.