After a 3-14 season, the Cleveland Browns brass have a lot of work to do to get the franchise back into playoff contention. It likely starts with figuring out the quarterback position.
During a weekly visit to 92.3 The Fan's Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima, Browns color analyst Nathan Zegura offered a blunt statement about the team's future. For Zegura, quarterback is the key to everything.
"I think until you have a quarterback in this league, you cannot compete year in and year out," Zegura said when asked about the Browns potentially taking a quarterback with the second pick. "There seems to be a lot of fear around taking a quarterback. The Browns have picked in the top 10, 14 times since 1999, they've only taken two quarterbacks: Tim Couch and Baker Mayfield. You have got to get that position."
Zegura went on to highlight the elite quarterbacks that Cleveland is forced to face every year even just inside their own division, like Joe Burrow of the Bengals and Lamar Jackson of the Ravens. He even expounded it out to the AFC as a whole, which features guys like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen as well.
Ultimately, Zegura is right. The Browns desperately need to find a quarterback as soon as possible and the draft offers a unique opportunity to grab a rookie that could become the face of the franchise.
That's the decision Browns GM Andrew Berry and his staff face over the next several months, as they potentially choose between Colorado's Shedeur Sanders or Miami's Cam Ward at No. 2 overall.