Last weekend, Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Taylen Green found himself walking through an unfamiliar playbook in a hotel room down the street from a place he’d previously never been. With one eye on a nearby iPad and one making sure his feet were where his new coaches wanted them without actually backing into any hotel furniture, Green prepped himself for his first set of NFL practices at the Browns’ weekend rookie minicamp.
The long strides are a part of what makes the 6-foot-6 Green such an intriguing prospect. Whether Green is capable of making significant enough strides with the playbook and his all-around game to help the Browns in the season ahead remains to be seen, but in an offense and quarterback situation that appears fluid now and going forward, the Browns feel they’re taking a big swing on a rare prospect.
At the NFL Scouting Combine in February, Green weighed 227 pounds and clocked a 4.36 in the 40-yard dash, a combine record for quarterbacks. The Browns’ new rookie quarterback is almost as big as most of the team’s tight ends and defensive ends and is basically as fast, if not faster, than the team’s new first-round wide receiver, KC Concepcion.
A sixth-round pick who begins his career a clear No. 4 on the depth chart comes with no guarantee of any kind, but the Browns took a chance on Green because he’s a top-level athlete with rare physical gifts. And though new Browns coach Todd Monken has been clear that the 23-year-old is promised nothing past the majority of the rookie minicamp reps, there could eventually be a way for the Browns to merge the development of a long-term longshot with short-yardage or red zone opportunities for Green to use his size, athleticism and running ability.
“I would say of course (I’m like) Lamar Jackson, but he ain’t 6-foot-6,” Green said. “Josh Allen is close, but I’m 230. He’s like 260. I don’t know. My dad says I’m Randall Cunningham-ish. I really don’t think there’s anybody like me. Not (to be) cocky or anything, just some confidence. There’s nobody that moves like me that’s as tall as me.”
Monken was hired by the Browns after three seasons as the offensive coordinator in Baltimore, where he constructed an offense around the running and passing talents of Jackson. Green spent his last two college seasons at Arkansas playing under offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, Jackson’s college head coach. So Green is familiar not only with Jackson’s work in the NFL but with plenty of his college film and coaching points Petrino carried forward.
If any NFL team thought Green was really ready to be the next Jackson, Allen or Cunningham, he would have been selected long before pick No. 182, where the Browns got him. So in the interest of keeping the brake pedal nearby, it’s fair to call Green the most interesting player coming out of rookie minicamp, and one Monken believes is worth thorough and proper development.
“You see the talent with Taylen, and there’s still a next jump that he can make,” Monken said. “It’s exciting to have him out here and let him just play through some things. Obviously, this is the time for him to get reps. Once we get into (organized team activity practices) in another week, that’s really going to diminish. I mean, you’re not going to see as much of him because of the numbers (at quarterback).
“But I’m excited and excited for him. He’s a great kid, and everything we’d heard about him so far has been true.”
Since their return to the NFL in 1999, the Browns have had 42 mostly forgettable starting quarterbacks. They’ve had nine different players make starts at various points over the last three seasons, and three of them are still on the team. But with a new coach and little guaranteed based on recent performance, the team’s future at the game’s most important position is wide open.
As a college quarterback, Green was a weapon. He had 73 carries of 10-plus yards over his two seasons at Arkansas and 35 rushing touchdowns over his time at Arkansas and Boise State. It was no surprise to NFL scouts that Green also set combine quarterback records in the vertical jump (43.5 inches) and broad jump (11 feet 2 inches) because he was a powerful athlete who could create explosive plays, both by design and necessity.
Taylen Green had 73 runs of at least 10 yards during two seasons at Arkansas. (David Buono / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
But Green never had a single-season completion percentage of greater than 61 percent and threw 20 interceptions over his final two college seasons. He was clearly a runner first and a passer second, and Monken said the Browns must continue to work with Green on shortening his release as he gets more comfortable with his new offense and new surroundings.
The Athletic’s Dane Brugler wrote in his pre-draft report that Green “needs to take better care of the football and refine his mechanics and passing rhythm, but he offers the physical traits and high character worth molding in a read-option, vertical passing game.”
Arkansas mostly operated a no-huddle, hurry-up scheme, so just about everything that Green will now be asked to learn and command with the Browns is new. Monken said Green absorbed the parts of the offense the coaching staff relayed in post-draft video meetings and “operated the offense pretty well” in his first two days on the practice field.
Any real chance Green has to take full command of the offense is months and maybe years away, but the Browns utilizing Green as a short-yardage quarterback or in some kind of run-heavy package remains a tantalizing possibility.
“It’s probably too early to tell that,” Monken said. “But I could say that anybody with that kind of athleticism, should he progress in certain areas of his game, I think there would be a possibility of him (in) short yardage, once you get in the low red zone, maybe some third down stuff that we could utilize.”
We don’t know how long the perpetual Cleveland quarterback carousel may continue to spin — or to what extent Green will be involved with that ride. But if he can match a strong spring and summer practice performance with the skill set that he showed in college, Monken could call his number at some point during his rookie season.
“Especially my rookie year, I’m just here to help the team win,” Green said. “No matter what I have to do, I’m blessed to have this opportunity and blessed to have the Browns draft me because not a lot of people get that opportunity. So if (my job) is just running somebody over to get that touchdown, I’m going to run somebody over.”