Editor's note: Tony Grossi covers the Cleveland Browns for ESPN 850 WKNR.

Bad timing award: What if I told you the Browns would have their worst season ever … earning them the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft … and there would be no pot of gold waiting at the end of that rainbow?

No John Elway.

No Peyton Manning.

No Andrew Luck.

No quarterback who would be the unquestioned, unchallenged, no-brainer first pick in the draft. No passer so physically and intellectually gifted that would actually bring Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay to agreement on their mock drafts.

No player for which to entertain an out-of-this-world, future-mortgaging trade offer, only for the Browns to fold their arms, confidently, and say, “Nope. No thanks.”

No transformative player to lift this abused franchise out of its doldrums, like Bernie Kosar did in 1985.

Brace yourself for that possibility because it is trending that way.

So much for the tanking conspiracy theory. The fact is there is nobody to tank for.

Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer, the presumptive front-runner, has fallen on hard times, to the point where his vituperative coach, Brian Kelly, benched him in his last game.

Clemson’s Deshaun Watson is highly productive in the spread offense, but may be too inconsistent and just not physical enough to warrant the No. 1 overall pick.

The other quarterback hopefuls – Miami’s Brad Kaaya, Mississippi’s Chad Kelly, North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, Cal’s Davis Webb, even Central Michigan’s Cooper Rush – may be fine prospects, but none qualifies as a no-brainer No. 1 pick.

Timing is everything in these things. And it is looking like the Browns picked a bad year to be real bad.

What about Cody?: Which brings up Cody Kessler.

The Browns’ rookie quarterback, who wasn’t supposed to play much this year, looks better every game he plays. He has earned everyone’s respect for doing all the right things on and off the field. He spends his day off in the Browns’ facility boning up on the next opponent.

Most quarterbacks this time of year sneak in a round of golf or visit a children’s hospital or do something to relax on Tuesday. Kessler said it’s probably his longest work day of the week.

It’s impossible to not like Kessler. After falling two points short of the Browns’ first win last week in Nashville, he apologized to his teammates and assured them he is giving everything he has.

“I will say that Cody has done about as well as any rookie that I can remember. He has done a tremendous job. I think he has surprised a lot of people,” said left tackle Joe Thomas.

Coach Hue Jackson said, “I think he is playing as well as any rookie quarterback that I have had because I have seen him do things that we did not even ask other rookies to do in different kind of teams.”

Kessler has done everything but win a game.

I know that the quarterback alone can’t make up for all the deficiencies of a roster depleted by injuries and by systematic rebuilding. But the truth is, the Browns need a quarterback to do just that.

So what can Kessler do, short of winning a few games, to prove that he should be taken seriously as the quarterback of the future? What can he do to affect the team’s draft plans in April?

“That is a good question,” Jackson allowed.

Where is this going?: “I don’t know that anybody will affect the draft plans,” Jackson finally concluded. “I don’t think we will talk about those until the season is over.

“We are going to always do everything we can to better our football team as we move forward. That is the direction obviously of Sashi [Brown] and Paul [DePodesta] and Andrew [Berry] and myself. We are going to do everything we can to get better everywhere.

“We are going to keep going, but I don’t know that anybody on our team can do anything to affect where we go as we move forward. I think we will continue to get better everywhere if we can because I think that is how you build a really good team as you move forward.”

We can see where this is going.

The Browns have to keep playing Kessler to see if he can be the answer to their quarterback question.

Right now, he is unable to lift this young team over the hump. It is unfair to expect that of him. Yet that is what the position calls for, really.

As Kessler continues to improve, he may convince the Browns to trust him with the job in 2017, freeing them to use their first-round draft picks on other positions.

I am feeling the love for Kessler from fans weary of the franchise’s ever-turning quarterback carousel.

But I am mindful of the words of Paul DePodesta, the chief strategy officer, who talked to me about his thoughts on the quarterback position in the July interview explaining why they passed on Carson Wentz.

“At the end of the day,” DePodesta said, “that quarterback still has to be a driving force of your team, especially if you want to be a consistent winner over time.

“I think it’s a huge area of focus for us, not just now but I think it’s going to continue to be. Even if we feel like we have one, or we have two, we’re going to still try to find another one, because it’s one of those situations where it’s so important that you should never be satisfied with where you are at the position.”

It would be so much easier if Kizer were playing lights out and solidifying the No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft. But he’s not.

And that means the New Browns Order is going to have another round of tough decisions in its second draft. Let’s hope they have learned from their mistakes from the last one.