Why Jimmy Garoppolo was Not an Option for the Cleveland Browns.

There was never a scenario to bring Jimmy Garoppolo to Cleveland.  I

San Francisco has traded a second round pick to the Patriots for Jimmy Garoppolo, and Browns fans are irate that he didn't become a Cleveland Brown instead.  But there are reasons why this could not possibly work.

First, face it, Cleveland is not an attractive landing spot for Garoppolo.  If you think he and his agent would have a warm spot for the team after spending eight weeks here, you're crazy.  No, after the terrible season that the Browns are having and a complete meltdown of the front office, there is a 100% chance that Garoppolo would leave after his eight game sentence is up. He would become a Free Agent and go somewhere else, and the Browns would have blown a second round draft pick for no reason.  The only way to be sure of having him would be to Franchise Tag him for 2018, which will cost about 23 million dollars for quarterbacks.  That's a lot of money for an unproven albeit promising kid. 

The same thing might happen to San Francisco, but they probably don't need to Franchise Tag him.  Here's how it plays out:

AGENT: Jimmy wants more money or he will go to Cleveland. 

SHANAHAN: HAHAHA! You liar! Take my offer or leave it!

AGENT: (two second pause).  Okay, I'll take it.

Some Browns fans think that they could have had Garoppolo at the beginning of the season.  That's wrong.  At the beginning of the season he would be worth more because the new team gets 16 guaranteed games instead of 8, plus psychologically a better chance to sign him long term. But the Pats have to gamble that Brady stays healthy, and that is a smaller risk with 11 games to go rather than 19. So the Pats managed the risk factor as best they could, and traded Garoppolo at the last possible minute before his trade value goes to zero at the trade deadline.  The Patriots valued having Garoppolo as an insurance policy, but that policy was about to expire, so they cashed in.  

Other reasons to not trade the pick and a $23 Million Franchise Tag fee, is that we all like Jimmy but its not proven he is an All-Pro.  Just because he can quarterback the Patriots doesn't mean he can do the same job somewhere else.  And he's still not a huge kid, doesn't have the big hands thought to be an advantage for cold weather football, hasn't been injury resistant like Tom Brady, and is still rather inexperienced. 

Conversely, A. J. McCarron would have cost a $4 M tender as a restricted free agent in 2018.  So that route is much less costly, and a much lower risk. You still have to ask whether he is actually an upgrade from Cody Kessler and DeShone Kizer, but it's at least affordable if not a stroke of genius. 

Adam Schefter of ESPN had the interesting angle that Belichick might have preferred trading him to the NFC, so the Patriots would only play against him once every four years.  If they had traded him to Cleveland, the Browns might trade him to someone in the Patriot's division, and that would not be good.  Plus Belichick really likes Garoppolo, and would rather send him to a stable system led by a guy he respects in Kyle Shanahan.  The Browns, on the other hand, are the team that fired him.   He has a long memory.  

So, Jimmy G was never an option for the Browns. A J McCarron was not a good option, but he would be an option.  And we can still offer him a contract in the 2018 off-season, when he becomes a Restricted Free Agent.