Browns front office leaves early, misses chance to trade for Jimmy Garoppolo
By Asher Fair
The Cleveland Browns front office left early last night, which caused them to miss their opportunity to trade for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Yet another day of the Cleveland Browns being the Cleveland Browns has come and gone, which is the main reason they are 1-24 since the start of last season with zero victories since last Christmas Eve.
Now, they may have blown the opportunity to save their franchise through a new quarterback yet again. The team’s front office decided to leave early yesterday at around 5:00 PM ET with coaches still hard at work in the building.
Shortly after the front office left, New England Patriots traded backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, but not to the 0-8 Browns. Garoppolo ultimately ended up being dealt to the also 0-8 San Francisco 49ers for a second round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, and the 49ers then released Brian Hoyer, who had started six of their eight games thus far this season, proving that they are banking on the 25-year-old Garoppolo to be their answer at the quarterback position for the long haul.
Being the backup quarterback behind Tom Brady, who many consider to be the greatest quarterback in NFL history, Garoppolo did not get much playing time. His big break was last season when he started two games of the four games during Brady’s suspension for the DeflateGate scandal in the 2014-2015 playoffs.
In those two games, Garoppolo led the Patriots to victories against the Arizona Cardinals and the Miami Dolphins and was exceptional at throwing the football. He completed 68.3 percent of his passes for 502 yards and four touchdowns without throwing a single interception. In his four-year NFL career, he has thrown for 690 yards and five touchdowns on a 67.0 completion percentage with no interceptions.
The missed opportunity for the Browns to trade for Garoppolo adds to a list of recent whiffs by the organization as far as the quarterback position goes. In the last two NFL drafts, they have traded first-round picks to the Philadelphia Eagles and the Houston Texans, respectively.
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So far this season, Browns quarterbacks have thrown for a combined for 17 interceptions. The quarterbacks taken by the Eagles in 2016 (Carson Wentz) and the Texans in 2017 (Deshaun Watson) with the Browns’ picks are tied for the NFL lead with 19 passing touchdowns.