Things have certainly improved for Paxton Lynch recently, moving up the draft boards. He’s picking up interest from a lot of teams, but the Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns have hows more than others.
The 22-year old who played for Memphis during his college career isn’t the perfect prospect. He moves well in the pocket, is accurate and seems to be a guy who can read the field very well and rely on his talent. However, he’s not fundamentally sound the way NFL teams want their quarterbacks to be, and needs to bulk up both in the lower body and upper body, or his career will be filled with injuries very quickly once he gets on an NFL field. He did set Memphis single season records for passing yards (3,778) and touchdowns (28) in 2015, while leading the Tigers to their first 10-win season since the 1930s. He had a bad bowl game experience against Auburn, but it hasn’t turned off teams going after him, pretty sure that under the right guidance, he can develop into a good NFL quarterback.
He’s visited with the Cowboys, Chiefs and Browns. Both Dallas and Kansas City don’t need a starting quarterback, but there’s always room for a good backup. The Chiefs lost Chase Daniel to the Philadelphia Eagles, while the Cowboys got burnt last season by not having someone decent enough to fill in for Tony Romo. There’s always a risk Romo will get injured, and in any case, he is one of the older quarterbacks in the NFL, and one that tends to pick up injuries rather easily.
As for the Browns, you never know. Signing Robert Griffin III doesn’t promise him a starting role, and head coach Hue Jackson said it doesn’t deny them the opportunity of drafting a quarterback. They’re more likely to pick a QB in the first round then not. Lynch is viewed as someone taken later in the first round, so it might be a bit of a reach to use the second overall pick on him. However, if the Browns feel like they have patience to let him develop for a year or two behind a filler like Griffin (they’ll probably sign someone else or draft someone very late), Lynch might be the right player to take.