John Dorsey cagey, but clues say Browns GM will take a quarterback with first pick

The draft is just a week away, but as general manager John Dorsey sees it that gives him more than 168 additional hours to shift through all the data he has accumulated before the Browns are on the clock with the first pick at 8 p.m. April 26.

Dorsey met with the media before noon on April 19. Of course, he wouldn’t say which quarterback he prefers. Nor would he rule out taking running back Saquon Barkley first or trading the first or fourth pick.

“Why wouldn’t I (consider drafting Barkley No. 1)?” Dorsey said. “The guy’s a really good football player. Absolutely. You can’t have enough of them on your team.

“I’m going to consider all options. I still have seven days before the draft. I still have to go through some of the processes. That’s not to say (a trade will be made), but you know what? My phone is still on. My phone always rings.”

Dorsey made 13 trades in five years as Chiefs general manager, but never traded down in the first round. In 2017, his last with the Chiefs, he traded the 27th pick, a third round pick in 2017 and Kansas City’s 2018 first-round pick to the Bills so he could draft quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Targeting Mahomes last year could be a clue Dorsey will use the first pick on a quarterback despite the smoke and mirrors.

Sam Darnold of USC and Josh Allen of Wyoming are considered the top two quarterbacks in the draft, and with the first pick, Dorsey has his choice.

Darnold turned the ball over 22 times last fall. Allen completed 56.2 percent of his passes.

So which problem is easier to fix?

“Let me sit here and think about it,” Dorsey said. “Seriously, that sounds like a trick question. We’re not doing a trick question here.

“The only thing I really care about is do guys win? Does he have accuracy? Does he have a strong arm? Can he throw the ball in the red zone in tight windows? Can he drive the ball? At the end of the game, does he win? That’s what I look for.”

Allen was 16-10 in two years at Wyoming. Darnold was 20-4.

If winning is really what Dorsey cares about most, get ready to buy Browns Baker Mayfield jerseys. The quarterback from Oklahoma has more experience than Darnold or Allen. He was 33-6 in three seasons starting for the Sooners.

Mayfield has his warts, too. He measured a shade over 6-foot at the combine. He is also the most controversial quarterback in the draft because of questionable off-field behavior. Dorsey, though, says that reputation is unfair.

“You guys always try to create the narrative of this guy, that he’s like something he’s not,” Dorsey said. “I mean, we said that back at the Senior Bowl. Just meeting with him, he’s a pleasant fella, he’s pretty sharp. He’s fine. I have no problems with him.”

The one measurement Dorsey did say is important is hand-size. Allen wins there. Allen’s hand measured 10-1/8, Darnold’s 9-3/8 and Mayfield’s 9-1/4 inches.

Dorsey was not talking about any player in particular, but his roots as someone who rose through the ranks first as a linebacker for the Packers from 1984-89, then as a Packers scout from 1991-96 before being made the Packers Director of College Scouting in 1997 are evident. He continued to climb the ladder and didn’t become a general manager until Kansas City hired him in 2013.

“I’d say defining the system would be listening to every piece of information you get,” Dorsey said. “You can’t have enough information. Be very prudent. Be very patient, but also trust your eyes, watching film.

“To have any understanding of what scouting is or what players are you have to be in scouting for at least five years,” Dorsey said, “To understand and learn from trial and error and then as you’re in rooms with experienced scouts you begin to listen and (watch) film together and you begin to understand different concepts. ‘Hey maybe as a young man maybe I didn’t understand or see this.’

“You start to pick their brains. Slowly, you begin develop and as long as you have somebody at the top that’s willing to teach you as a young man, I think it’s invaluable to have that type of system in place.”

Dorsey’s predecessor, Sashi Brown, had no scouting experience. Brown was a salary cap specialist before Browns owner Jimmy Haslam named him Executive Director of Football Operations.