Sam Darnold, the quarterback the Browns are at least thinking about taking with the first pick in the draft on April 26, sat behind Cody Kessler at Southern Cal in 2015.
The Browns drafted Kessler in the third round the following spring. Kessler was 0-8 as a rookie and somehow regressed last season in a handful of relief appearances.
This isn’t to suggest if he couldn’t even beat out Kessler that Darnold is destined for disaster in the NFL, but instead to say he would be willing if the Browns do draft him to sit behind Tyrod Taylor without leading a mutiny. Coach Hue Jackson is on record saying Taylor will start and that there will be no training camp battles this summer.
I was impressed by the way Darnold answered questions from Mike Mayock and the NFL Network panel after Darnold threw in the rain on March 21 during the USC pro day. He seemed relaxed and continually talked about being himself. He seemed genuine and did not answer questions robotically.
“It was cool to be able to throw in the rain and do what I did,” he said. “It was awesome. This is a job interview. I think I showed (the teams at the top of the draft the best version of myself. I’ve been training hard for this day. I thought I did really well.”
False humility is transparent, so it’s fine Darnold said he thought he threw well (which he did) because he wasn’t haughty.
Darnold talked about sessions with coaches when they ask him to show on a whiteboard how much he knows about a particular team’s offense.
The Browns are one of the teams that send a potential draftee a playbook a few days prior to meeting with him. Then in the meeting, the coaches will ask him questions the player should be able to answer if he studied the material.
“It’s nerve-wracking,” Darnold said, speaking in general terms and not about any specific team. “They want to see how much you know. I just think about I know what I know. I’ll show it to them. If they don’t like it, they don’t like it and if they do, they’re going to pick me.”
Josh Allen, the Wyoming quarterback the Browns are also considering taking with the first pick overall, was equally relaxed and impressive in interviews after his pro day on March 23 when Mike Mayock of NFL Network asked him about his 56.2 completion percentage.
“I really dove into how I was throwing the ball,” Allen said. “My feet were really jacked up. Anytime that I would miss, my feet were out of whack. They weren’t sequencing correctly.
“Getting with Jordan Palmer (Allen’s quarterback tutor), he was noticing the things I was doing in my stance and footwork. He was helping me guide that. I’ve fixed that and I can self-correct. I’ve been working on it a lot.”