of course he is. i have no idea how anyone involved in the watson trade is still employed at this point.
Neat. Can’t wait to get a bag of beans for Garrett instead of high draft picks because our owner and GM think they’re the smartest guys in the room.
I think this is the smart move by the team. They obviously have no intention of "rebuilding", and if that's the case, trading Myles makes no sense. The picks you will get are likely to be late round firsts, which hold significantly less value. Cleveland has 2 years of control with his current contract, and I believe they could also franchise him. If that's the case, they have him under team control for 3 more seasons, 2 of those should be without the heavy burden of the Watson contract. I understand that last year was a catastrophe, but the team made the playoffs 2 years ago with a cobbled together group of QB's. If they can get even and average starter, they look significantly better.
Some are old, but no one is ever expensive. Rising cap, mixed with restructuring ability means teams can essentially create cap space at any time. One good offseason can flip the trajectory of any team, look at the Commanders as the most recent example. Watson is the outlier as the contract is big and its a player that isn't playing. But they are spreading that out and getting insurance relief. Obviously it all comes down to the QB, which puts the Browns in the same spot as roughly half the league trying to find a long term answer.
I understand what you're saying but there's no Jayden in this draft, Haslam is still clueless, and there's no talent < 27 on this roster to be excited about that doesn't have a possible career ending injury.
Lets break this down and a be a bit more rational.... I will fully admit that the Commanders caught lightening with Jaden, but lets not forget that he was the 3rd QB taken in that draft. You never know where your QB can come from. Maybe one of the vets signs and has a revival like Flacco did in that playoff run. Maybe Ward/Sanders is drafted and they catch lightening like the commanders. Its impossible to know. Haslem is clueless - I fully agree that he was for the first several years, but what has he done recently thats so terrible? The Watson trade, at the time, was a shrewd move and he did everything to make sure it got done. No way he, nor anyone, would have predicted what Watson would become. He has also continually paid out large sums of money to improve the roster. He has, for the most part, stayed completely out of the way when it comes to the front office and coaching. And, he has stood behind a 2 time coach of the year. no young talent - I would agree there may not be elite level talent, but there is alot there to build from. Juedy, Newsome, Emerson, Wright, Zinter, Hickman, Wypler, Jones and Hall are all younger guys that have already flashed, or have high upside potential. There are holes to plug on this team, but there is alot on this roster that can provide depth, assuming the QB situation gets sorted out.
No, it wasn't. It was a terrible move then and plenty of people treated it as such. Him doing everything he did to make sure it got done was disgusting and terrible for the long term outlook of the franchise considering everything they guaranteed.
there is 2 different arguments when discussing this trade: Moral vs pure football From a football standpoint, Watson was an elite player, as evidence by the number of teams that were bidding to trade for him. From that standpoint, the Browns did what was necessary to secure an elite QB. Morally, I agree it was a bad decision and shouldnt have been done. But that applies to the entire league, and they rarely truly care about morality if it wins games.
It's one trade and one transaction so there is only one discussion: do you make the trade or not? I get that there are different things to consider in the decision, but you cannot completely separate them. And I don't think it is wise to ignore the off the field stuff when making the football decision, obviously that has had a major impact on him as a person, is going to have a major impact on him as a player in your franchise, is going to draw all kinds of attention and criticism to your franchise, all of which can impact the football side. Not to mention that he literally hadn't played football in well over a year and was going to be suspended as well leading to an even longer time period without playing. The non-football piece definitely impacts the football piece. It was a terrible move without even considering the football piece, it was even worse when you consider the football piece and what was given up as well as the contract he was given when considering all the uncertainty. It was just an awful, franchise killing move. You said that Watson trade was a shrewd move. I couldn't disagree more. And if you look back at my posts from when the trade happened, I was never excited about the trade. What could possibly be considered "shrewd" about giving up 3 1st round picks + more to trade for a QB to whom you are giving the most guaranteed money in NFL history? Even if that works out successfully, I don't see how it can be considered "shrewd". And that is before you even consider the off the field crap.
There were pretty big questions about the fact that he hadn’t played in so long and would he be the same guy he was before without factoring in how disgusting it was Then add in the contract and what they gave up and it was definitely not widely considered a shrewd move at the time
I feel like you all are having a bit of revisionist history. There were easily 5-6 teams that lined up to try and acquire him, and the asking price was the same for everyone. The only thing that set the Browns apart was the guaranteed contract. The guaranteed contract discussion is dumb to me. 1 year after the Watson contract the Bengals inked Burrow to an extension that only paid him 10 million less in guarantees. Dak soon matched it and other less accomplished QBs have come relatively close. The deal wasn’t really that much of outlier compared to what the QB market has become. A majority of the league viewed Watson as an elite QB at the time, and the Browns went out and did what was necessary to acquire him. The owner was a major factor in that he guaranteed the money. I won’t argue the moral side of the trade, it was disgusting from the start for every fan, but that didn’t stop multiple teams. I also understand that most people can’t separate that from the football side, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with you. Right or wrong, it didn’t seem to matter to a chunk of the league. Obviously we have the benefit of hindsight is that he sucked, and it all blew up in their face. So it’s easy now to say it was a terrible decision.
Yeah except a bunch of us were saying at the time it was a terrible decision and there are posts on this here message board documenting it Maybe I’m letting the reaction here influence my memory but the way I remember it is a lot of people disgusted and laughing at the Browns for the trade and expecting it wouldn’t work out If I’m remembering it correctly, maybe it’s just because that’s the natural instinct at any move made by the Browns and it would’ve been different for another team. I think it was Panthers, Falcons, and Saints that were the other teams. 1/8 of the league isn’t exactly what you’re making it out to be when as you say, half the teams are looking for an answer at QB
Some of the immediate reaction in this thread Aside from Duke being a dumb bitch and QCT being absolutely vile, no one was celebrating
An interesting thing is this thread has only added like 25 pages in 3+ seasons since the trade was made. I think that says something because that is even including a playoff season last year.
I'd be okay taking a risk on Milroe in the third or fourth round but nothing higher than that and it would be like how the Saints used to use Taysom Hill
Think I’ve mentioned before but every year I do a rewatch of the bad Kevin Costner movie Draft Day the week of the draft. When they show the Browns archive footage early on, I freaked out in the theater because my stepdad was in it. He was at the Browns final home game before they moved to Baltimore with this sign. He still had it like a decade later, probably still somewhere around his house
Thoughts on Hunter vs Carter? Or rumor of Jags wanting to move up to 2? I wanted to trade down and take OT for a long time but the closer we get, the more I think stay at 2 and take one of the few blue chip players in the draft Carter is my pick but happy with Hunter
Yeah, I am fine with either one. Just never wanted them to go QB at 2 and it seems that wish will come true. Carter seems safer, but both have really high ceilings.
Fine with trade down, Carter or Hunter. That means it'll be Shedeur and we can lock/delete this thread.
A little, I dont like giving up draft capital after we just got out of giving up what we did for Deshaun.
Yes. Very. There isn’t a QB I would take at 33, let alone trade up. All the QBs will go earlier than I’d be willing to take them but assuming no trades, 67 is the earliest I’d want any of them
i think i'm higher on ward than most people. if we insist on qb, he's the only one i wouldn't hate prefer carter. would be happy with hunter, though i think he needs to pick a position