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http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...-the-nfl-draft

4. Cleveland nabs Brandon Weeden with the 22nd overall selection. Over the past month, Brandon Weeden and his representation have done a great job of trying to turn his age (28, thanks to five years as a minor league baseball player) from a negative into a positive. He's experienced! He has a good head on his shoulders! He's ready to contribute now! Well, all those things better be true, because Weeden is on a totally different timeline from every other rookie. The problem with drafting a guy at 28 is that no college quarterback is truly ready for the NFL. Even the best quarterbacks in football go through a development process while adjusting to the speed of the game and the range of professional defenders. Weeden, who only started for two years at Oklahoma State, will be going through that development at ages 28 and 29. Guys who have followed a similar path — think Chris Weinke, Drew Henson, and Chad Hutchinson — have failed to ever develop into viable professional starters. Nobody wants to try to develop a 28-year-old quarterback, because by the time he's done developing, he'll already be 30 and declining athletically. And if Weeden struggles, well, the Browns don't have the time to sit around and play a 29-year-old who isn't up to the task. If Weeden succeeds as a pro quarterback, it will be a remarkable exception to what's been a pretty sound rule: Don't draft overage college players.