BEREA, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns dutifully sat at the draft night podium and listed all the reasons why they liked Baker Mayfield, the quarterback they made the draft’s first overall pick Thursday.

“This is a guy who has earned everything he has,” general manager John Dorsey said.

"He knows how to play and knows how to win,” Dorsey added.

There’s more.

“He’s got feet to extend the play,” Dorsey said. “Really good accuracy, quick release. He has a strong arm. His efficiency in the red zone offense, it’s uncanny.

“He’s hungry. He wants to be a really good football player.”

Browns coach Hue Jackson was more succinct.

“He was the best college quarterback this year, by far, in our opinion,” he said, adding that Mayfield is “a leader of men.”

They're all positive attributes, just as Mayfield’s track record at Oklahoma is a positive. All the wins, the yards, the work to evolve from a two-time walk-on to the first overall pick in the draft. Every bit is a positive.

But in this draft class, there were several options for a choice that can define a franchise and a general manager and a coach. They were taller than Mayfield, and they did not have the off-field or on-field baggage that made headlines. The Browns took the guy with the greater risk in the belief that he’ll be the greater player.

But this choice has risks. The Browns do not believe they are significant, but they are there. And they arise based on the way Mayfield has acted at times, not what anyone says.

Mayfield’s history includes an arrest when he ran from police and grabbing his crotch, gesturing at an opposing team. In the pre-draft process, he was rude to a coach from the Bears and hung up on an agent.

He has worn taunting T-shirts and carried himself with swagger -- including planting an Oklahoma flag on the Ohio State logo after the Sooners’ win in Columbus, Ohio, last season. In the grand scheme of transgressions, the flag plant ranks low on the scale. But taken together, the actions show that something in Mayfield told him it was OK to make an obscene gesture directed at the Kansas bench.

He said he planted the flag because Oklahoma had an emotional win after a difficult loss to Ohio State in 2016. Fine, but there have been tens of thousands of players who followed tough losses with a win and didn’t feel the need to plant any flags. There are thousands of players who may have been disrespected but didn’t grab themselves.

Mayfield is slated to be the face of a Browns franchise that has been faceless for more than a decade. He’s the guy expected to carry the team’s flag in a city where the emotions from the experience of Johnny Manziel remain raw.

Mayfield is not Manziel. The problem is his height is close to Manziel’s, and some of his actions bring Manziel to mind.

Dorsey called Mayfield “a neat kid.”

“He’s humble,” Dorsey said. “He really is humble.”

Except Mayfield’s swagger connotes little humility.

“You guys are going to try to create ... I mean, here’s how I look at this,” Dorsey said. "In doing all of our research with Baker Mayfield, he is an individual that has earned it all the way through his life.”

Dorsey rattled off Mayfield’s ability to learn and study, then concluded: “I have no qualms about this guy whatsoever as a man or as a football player."

The other concern about Mayfield is his height. At the combine he was listed at 6 feet, 5/8 inches. At the combine he had a hand size of 9 1/4 inches; Dorsey said the Browns measured it -- and hand size matters to the GM -- in a visit to the team’s facility at 9 6/8 inches. There was no explanation for the larger size.

Mayfield plays a certain style to go with his height. The Sooners’ Air Raid offense was typically fast and frenetic, like most college offenses.

The list of top NFL quarterbacks does not include many who play that style. Most are dropback, stand-in-the-pocket passers who maintain a sense of calm amidst chaos. Some can run, but guys like Drew Brees and Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan stand in the pocket and deliver a third-and-14 pass with two defensive linemen bearing down on their throats.

Dorsey said Mayfield’s dropback gets him to his throwing spot quicker, which helps him. He added Mayfield had the fewest passes knocked down at the line in college football last season.

In the NFL, Mayfield will have to learn the pro game and pro dropbacks and pro playcalls. He can gain that knowledge. He can’t gain height, another common denominator of the better NFL quarterbacks. There are exceptions -- Brees and Russell Wilson -- but they still function in the pocket.

“The No. 1 reason we took Baker Mayfield is he was the best of that bunch, in my opinion,” Dorsey said.

Fair enough, but a team cannot afford to miss on the first overall pick.

It’s a draft slot that puts reputations, and jobs, on the line.