Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel has made on-field progress in his second season. The young passer is completing a higher percentage of his throws, looking downfield more often and actually has a positive TD-to-INT ratio of 6:3 (though he does have five fumbles). Overall, his passer rating of 89.2 would put him 21st in the league - ahead of guys like Ryan Tannehill, Matt Ryan and Teddy Bridgewater - if he had enough snaps to qualify.
Yet Manziel's behavior is still a cause for concern off the field. He lost his starting job recently for lying to the coaching staff about when a video of him partying was taken. Though he regained the position, the consistent trend of off-field incidents and questionable decision making is worrisome to say the least. As such, it wouldn't be a surprise for the offensively inept Browns to look at quarterbacks in the 2016 NFL Draft. In fact, ESPN NFL Draft Insider Todd McShay projects Cleveland to select Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch with the No. 2 overall pick.
"Lynch has been an extremely efficient passer for the Tigers this season (69.0 completion rate, 28 TDs vs. 3 INTs) - and he showed up in a big way against Memphis' best opponent (Ole Miss)," McShay wrote. "He has not yet declared for the draft - and I still have a lot of work to do on him in terms of analyzing his work ethic, leadership skills, mental makeup and durability history - but Lynch has the physical skills to develop into a good starting NFL QB, which Cleveland needs."
Lynch is a specimen at the position, standing 6-foor-7 and weighing in at 245 pounds. Scouts love his arm talent and the way he takes care of the football. However, he has not faced consistently tough competition so it is hard to truly evaluate how he would translate to the NFL. Even if the Browns are interested, they'll likely have to contest with the San Francisco 49ers for Lynch or Cal's Jared Goff, the other top QB prospect on most boards.
Though not at the same level of last year's top QB prospect Jameis Winston, Lynch is an intriguing talent that should drum up significant interest should he declare for the NFL Draft.
