Browns make quarterback Mayfield top pick in NFL draft
LOS ANGELES – Agence France-Presse
Reigning Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield was the first pick April 26 in the 2018 NFL draft, the annual selection of college players that helps teams in America’s most popular sport replenish their rosters.
The Cleveland Browns chose Mayfield to kick off the first round of the draft which is considered one of the deepest in recent history for quarterbacks as four of the top 10 players taken were QBs.
The 23-year-old Mayfield is expected to eventually become the playmaking cornerstone for the Browns who also have Tyrod Taylor and Drew Stanton at the quarterback spot.
“With Baker Mayfield, we have a guy who loves the game of football, who is an ultra-competitor, is revered by his teammates and anybody who has ever been around him,” Browns GM John Dorsey said.
“He’s a guy that has earned everything he has ever had since high school to college and now up here. He is a winner, he’s competitive.”
The U.S. colleges are the biggest supplier of players to the NFL and the entry draft is the most common player recruitment tool for the league.
The Browns had been expected to take a quarterback with the top pick but heading into the draft there was no consensus on who the No. 1 pick should be.
Cleveland also had the fourth pick in the draft and chose to take cornerback Denzel Ward of Ohio State.
Penn State running back Saquon Barkley went second overall to the New York Giants and University of Southern California quarterback Sam Darnold was selected third by the New York Jets.
North Carolina State defensive end Bradley Chubb rounded out the top five picks, going to the Denver Broncos.
The Buffalo Bills traded up from the 12th spot to No. 7 to select embattled quarterback Josh Allen who got in hot water earlier April 26 for some racially charged social media tweets he made as a teenaged high school student.
