Jimmy Garoppolo‘s been a key figure in NFL news cycles over the past year, and his status in New England may or may not have caused a rift between the franchise’s power structure.
But the 49ers now have him likely set for the franchise tag after surrendering merely a second-round pick. However, the Browns were the team most connected with the promising quarterback this past offseason, and Terry Pluto of cleveland.com reports they were willing to make a better offer to the Patriots for their then-backup.
The then-Sashi Brown-led front office was ready to offer the Patriots the Texans’ 2018 first-round pick (now No. 4 overall) they acquired in the Deshaun Watson trade, per Pluto, who adds the Browns would have been willing to throw in other trade chips if necessary to acquire Garoppolo.
Pluto notes the Browns tried to call the Patriots on Oct. 28 — two days before they shipped Garoppolo to San Francisco — and said more than once, “If you are open to trading him, please call.”
The Browns did not get another chance to make a Garoppolo push, Pluto writes, and this baffled the front office because of the previous deals — for Barkevious Mingo and Jamie Collins — they made with the Pats in 2016.
Seth Wickersham’s ESPN.com piece detailed how Belichick contacted Kyle Shanahan about Garoppolo in late October, making this a two-team negotiation rather than the bidding war the Browns were apparently willing to win since that Texans first-round pick ended up being a top-five choice. (Of course, Houston’s pick didn’t look like it was destined for this lofty of a slot at the trade deadline.) However, Yahoo.com’s Charles Robinson tweets Belichick — once fired by the Browns, as they were already transitioning to becoming the Ravens, after the 1995 season — was never going to trade Garoppolo to Cleveland.
The Browns checked in on Garoppolo’s availability during the draft, but the Patriots did not bite. Adam Schefter of ESPN indicated the Patriots never considered dealing Garoppolo this offseason. Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reported Hue Jackson was the driving force behind the Browns’ Garoppolo interest, and that it would have taken “at least” one first-round pick to pry him from the Patriots. Cabot added the Browns’ draft-weekend offer was a second-round pick for Garoppolo, however. John Lynch said the 49ers tried to trade for Garoppolo in the offseason as well but couldn’t agree on terms in this now-complicated saga.
Robert Kraft denied he gave Belichick a mandate to trade Garoppolo, as was reported by ESPN last week, and said Belichick came to him about the 49ers’ Garoppolo offer in October. The Browns ended up botching a trade for A.J. McCarron, whom Jackson also coveted but possibly as a backup plan after the Garoppolo talks fizzled, and are expected to draft a quarterback with their No. 1 overall pick.
Plenty of stories have emerged about Garoppolo’s availability in what could prove to be one of this decade’s seminal NFL transactions. But the Browns are still in search of a long-elusive franchise quarterback, and reportedly weren’t given the 11th-hour opportunity the 49ers were in the Garoppolo pursuit.
Texans?
Willing to offer the Texans 1st round pick to the pats…a little deceiving
Browns have Texans 1 rounder from the watson trade
Browns have 2 first round picks … 1
This is where things don’t smell right. Did the Pats force the deal thus settling for a 2nd rather than a first from Cleveland? Even if Houston stays healthy and makes the playoffs it’s still better than a 2nd.
its their 2018 pick which is now the 4th pick
Something doesn’t add up here…maybe Belichick still has ill feelings toward the Browns (even though the Ravens were technically the ones to fire him), but it’s *awful* business practice to accept a significantly lower return (the 4th pick vs. a pick in the late 30s or early 40s) just because you don’t like a team.
Either this report is completely bogus (which is what I’m guessing), or the Patriots really botched this one.
They really botched this one. There is absolutely no doubt they rejected better deals than the one they eventually agreed to with San Fran.
I’m going with the “graveyard” theory.
I’m probably wrong but I think there was a report/rumor that came out around the time that Garoppolo got traded that he had asked not to be traded to Cleveland. Obviously the Patriots didn’t have to do him any favors, but its possible that Belichick’s fondness for Garoppolo caused him to take a lesser return to appease him. It’s also possible that the Texans pick was on the table, the Browns asked for permission to talk with Garoppolo about a potential extension, Garoppolo said he wouldn’t resign, and then Cleveland pulled the offer.
Still bad business to take a lower return just to play favorites.
Unless you view it as BB putting Garoppolo in a position where he was more likely to succeed. That will help them with FAs (knowing the Pats will look out for the player sometimes), and if JG succeeds, it will help them deal QBs in the future.
But still, a top 5 pick would have the Pats to draft Brady’s successor.
Jimmy probably asked that he not be traded to that joke of a franchise
Terry Pluto is a mess
im almost positive I read somewhere that Belicheck said his intentions were to send Jimmy G somewhere he could succeed. That’s definitely NOT the browns.
BB and the Pats said they didn’t wanna do Jimmy G wrong by sending him to the browns they had seen the last couple of Quarterbacks do nothing with the browns and they liked Jimmy G so they wanted to send him somewhere where he could do something unlike the browns cuz sorry browns but y’all suck at developing quarterbacks! so respect to the Pats for that!
Belicheck didn’t want to trade him to an AFC team, had respect for Shanahan and probably does have a sour taste still in his mouth from his time there when he was a horrible HC.
After the fact coach ego claims he wanted to trade for JG and previously said he wanted to draft Goff or Watson? All part of him throwing folks under the bus to save his ass, why else would a coach who won one game in 2 years be retained? When he falls on his face again he won’t be around long
Who cares? Passed on Watson and Wentz. Had either. Done. Now this is news? Joke.
Pats are SB-ready team, if Brady went down they’re still contenders with JG so they hang onto him as long as possible. Not gonna match an offer for him as a FA next year or franchise the backup QB since it’s a bad cap move. Lynch and Shannhan have a good relationship with BB, who historically (like most humans) deals with people he likes. Texans become a serious AFC roadblock with JG, Cleveland is a punishment destination (Collins). So he sends the good solider of 3 yrs to the team run by guys he respects, in the other conference, where he can have success…oh and the 9ers have a QB to cut that the Pats can sign (Hoyer), who served as Brady’s backup for 3+ yrs, and spent a year in HOU with O’Brien, who coached with the Pats. There’s your story, Wickersham, you boob.
Important to note that Hoyer was originally included in the trade, but Pats asked for a cut-and-sign, so they wouldn’t have to give a compensatory pick.
And they signed Hoyer to a 3yr deal after acquiring him. In no way do I think he’s a stud, but the fact that he’s not prominently featured in these
Stories indicates the authors have no interest about making the story about football decisions. Ok I’ll stop 🙂
Prior browns head coach won TEN, 10, games in 2 years and was fired!!!! WTF are we missing here?