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With the NFL Draft now just a little over a month away, the Cleveland Browns are working to determine what quarterback(s) in this year's class fit them best.
When they got "decent" QB play out of Brian Hoyer last year, Cleveland looked like a legitimate AFC North contender with wins over the eventual-champion Bengals and defending-champion Ravens.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the Browns are strongly considering using the fourth overall pick on former Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr.
ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, the former director of pro personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins, is also hearing the same, and here's his reasoning:
"If you limit your exposure to just 2013 or 2012, you're missing the boat," Riddick said. "If you limit yourself to 2012, you are missing 2011, when he ran a quote-unquote pro-style offense, which at a young age I thought he showed excellent proficiency given where he was developmentally at that time.
"When you see him now in that type of system when he went to the Senior Bowl, during the practices, during the week, during the game, during his pro day, he was very comfortable with the footwork, timing, mechanics, accuracy that he's going to need at the NFL level. There are some people that are very, very, very impressed by what they think his skills are relative to an NFL projection.
Conversely, when you look at Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, Jimmy Garoppolo, your projection is more along the lines of a guess than it is a projection, because there's no context to go off of."
The Browns need to get a QB in this year's draft if they want to ever rise out of the cellar of the AFC North. Is Carr the one who can help them do that though?