Written by Kevin Skiver at CBS Sports.com
Have faith Trojan fans, Sam Darnold might not be done yet. The sophomore quarterback isn’t ruling out the possibility of coming back for his junior year, per Albert Breer of MMQB, especially if things fall in a particular way regarding the 2018 NFL Draft order.
Breer reports that Darnold wants to see what teams are picking first next year. And if one of them is the Browns — or a team like the Browns? He might head back to USC for one more ride.
.@AlbertBreer on @BullandFox: USC QB Sam Darnold is “going to take everything into account and that includes who’s at the top of the draft”
— Keith Britton (@KeithBritton86) November 1, 2017
Per @AlbertBreer, Sam Darnold will want to wait and see who has the top pick or two in the NFL Draft. If it’s Browns, he could stay at USC.
— Nick Camino (@NickCaminoWTAM) November 1, 2017
The San Francisco 49ers, the other winless team in the league, might eschew quarterbacks in the first round after acquiring Jimmy Garoppolo at the trade deadline. The other option, of course, would be to trade that early pick. If the 49ers get the first overall selection, that might be the route that they would want to go if a team has enough interest in Darnold to leap-frog the Browns.
The Browns had initially traded for AJ McCarron on Tuesday, but reportedly the paperwork for the deal with the Bengals didn’t go through before the 4 p.m. ET deadline. Since then, none of the news out of Cleveland has been good. Darnold and Penn State running back Saquon Barkley are considered the top-level talent in this particular draft, and should Darnold not come out, there will be other options for teams at quarterback. UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Wyoming’s Josh Allen and Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph would all see their stock rise should Darnold decide to stay.
All of this, of course, would be moot if Darnold drops in the draft. CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso projects Darnold to go as low as 15th, depending how the rest of the season shakes out.
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