If RG3 Goes to Cleveland, Keep an Eye on Connor Cook to the Broncos in the 1st Round

The NFL Owners meetings in Florida this week, and small news is trickling out, but you’ve got to sift through a lot of meaningless quotes and faux news to find the real stories. Such as this:

Quick thoughts before we get to the real news: 1) This would be a bad decision byRGIII, but maybe he has no other options; 2) Cleveland is where QBs go to die.

Now, onto the real news. Let’s assume this means the Jets end up keeping Ryan Fitzpatrick and the 49ers end up keeping Colin Kaepernick. This leaves one team without a place to sit in quarterback musical chairs: The Denver Broncos.

Which leads us, of course, to the 2016 draft.

I haven’t written the post yet, but I’m not buying this “Case Keenum is our starter” stuff from the Rams front office. That’s gotta be a smokescreen. (I’m on record not buying the Carson Wentz-drafted-2nd, either.)

So who will Mark Sanchez try to hold off as the starting QB come September? Before you laugh at that prospect, remember: Peyton Manning was statistically the worst starter in the NFL last year, and Brock Osweiler filled in admirably, and this team won a Super Bowl. (Yes, I’m aware they lost a lot on defense.)

My guess, a month before the draft, is that the Broncos target Connor Cookof Michigan State. Not a project. Osweiler/Peyton-like in that he’s primarily a pocket QB. One of the most experienced QBs in the draft, with 37 starts. As Ian Rapoport told me on my radio show, this draft has a 2011 feel to it. Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder were taken early. All flopped. The guys taken early in the 2nd round – Andy Dalton and Kaepernick – have thrived. Cook would do much better in Denver than he would Los Angeles or Cleveland, two bumbling franchises.

I don’t anticipate the Broncos drafting a project late in the 1st round. I do think Wentz/Paxton Lynch/Jared Goff could be off the board. This leaves the “2nd tier” of QBs for the Broncos to choose from, and knowing that the 49ers, Rams and Browns were all very public about their interest in Cook at his pro day, I think the Broncos will grab him late in the 1st round, rather than wait for him in the 2nd.