DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2017 NFL Season 2017 NFL Draft Dumbest Trade Ever

FO's going rogue!!!

I give the Cleveland Browns credit for selecting Myles Garrett with the first pick of the draft and saving themselves from much humiliation. I also give them credit for many of the trades they’ve made the past two drafts. But at what point do you ask what they are doing with all these selections? Is the contingency plan for the Jimmy Garoppolo trade that didn’t go down to build an arsenal of picks to acquire Kirk Cousins? Or to make sure they put themselves in a position to select Josh Allen of Wyoming or Sam Darnold of USC in 2018?

- Several years ago I wrote a story on the Houston Texans having two cards filled out the night they made Jadeveon Clowney the first pick of the 2014 draft. The other card had the name of Blake Bortles on it.

I’m wondering if we’ll ever learn the real story as to what happened in the Texans war room last night.

Unlike the handshakes, hugs and backslapping that went on in other war rooms, many in Houston looked as though they had just awoken on Christmas morning and found no presents under the tree after it was announced the team traded up and selected quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Watching the stone-faced expression on the face of head coach Bill O’Brien and the subdued attitude of those sitting at their desks made me and others I was with feel something was not right.

http://draftanalyst.com/winners-losers-day-one

Blimey! That's atrocious if true.

"hey guys, you know the thing we've been planning meticulously for months? Yeah, shred that. New plan. No questions please."

They just don't get it.
It's simple: the more opportunities you have to pick good players every year, the better your chances of actually getting good players.
It also gives you ammunition to jump up to get someone you want.

We started the day with two 1st's, and we made three 1st round selections and added another 1st round selection next year.

We are continuously putting ourselves in position to always be reloading; to always be able to be taking more players than any other team; to have more chances at taking quality players each year than any other team.

We've had TWO drafts in EACH YEAR for the last two years, and are looking at having it again next year as well.... how does that NOT justify itself as a solid plan for building through the draft?

I understand why the Bears did what they did, at least they aren't where the Browns are, you can say they reached, but I can say they addressed the Qb position.

And I was happy, because, I don't believe Mitch is any good, so let the bears be stuck with him, but they gambled, and the gamble is the right move, so good for them. But I think the Gamble should have been for Watson, so I wish the Browns would have taken him.
Because, that would be addressing the Qb position.

Ok but you choose to have two good players in the later round when you had the chance to grab one game changing player close to the top of the draft.

And that's what people are arguing.

I get both perspectives, but if you gave me the choice to of two good corners in the late 1st versus the chance to grab an elite/transcending player Garrett or Adams with a top 10 selection, I'm going to go cream of the crop.

When you're always trading back, you're lowering the chances of grabbing game changing talent where you have the best chance at the top of the draft.

You can't say they addressed the QB position until and unless that QB shows he was the one that could address it.

As of now they have made an attempt to address the QB position.

I think we traded back AND grabbed game-changing talent.... it's just not the "premier" talent that everyone wanted.
They threw a curveball into things, but still came away with game-changing level talent at the positions most folks hoped for.... AND set us up to be able to repeat it next year.

Just saying bro. A lot of years it didn't happen that way. Instead we got guys like Phil Taylor, manziel, weeden, Etc.

how is that possible

That was then, this is now.

Bill Polian, GM to the greatest QB ever, but still only has one super bowl ring, said he thought the Bears fleeced us on this trade. He said the Browns made too much noise about Trubisky and got him stolen out from under them.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Is this supposed to be like the Chewbacca Defense?

Polian also called Trent Richardson a "sure-thing" haha.

I think it just proves those in positions of power are often lucky more than right.

The recent history of trading up for QBs has not been great:



http://www.footballperspective.com/teams-traded-up-for-a-1st-round-qb-16-times-from-2005-to-2017/

Uh ... we made three picks in the first round!

I've pointed this out several times in other threads ...

When's the last time a team traded up and "reached" for a non-#1 QB that's turned out to be successful??

Most of the good ones seem to be guys that slipped in the draft ... Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Derek Carr, Dak Prescot, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, etc.

I haven't really looked into it, besides reading that article I posted, but it seems like either you take a guy with a high pick or you wait it out and get a guy later in the draft.

Yeah, exactly. The two proven routes for a successful QB are:

1) Take a consensus top QB #1, start him right away and let him be your franchise face.

2) Draft a guy in a spot where the value is right (don't trade up and/or "reach" for a guy), put a solid team around him so he's not expected to carry the entire offense, put him in when you feel he's comfortable, and don't heap expectations on him.


Then there's the Browns' route:

Trade up and/or reach for a guy that's not a #1. Immediately brand him the franchise face. Give him limited weapons around him and a weak offensive line. Start him right away. Heap immediate expectations on him to be the franchise savior. Change out the head-coach and/or coordinators each season, so that they can learn a whole new system a year after they had to learn a whole new system. Boo him relentlessly that he didn't put up Peyton Manning-like stats within 2 years.

It's sad to think that our best QB since our return was Tim Couch. We should have handled that situation much differently.


Instead we brokeback mountained him.

And Couch actually fits into that consensus #1 pick scenario. You can start a guy like that right away and put some expectation on him ... you just need to get a team around him at some point.

Both Couch and David Carr ended up getting David Carr Syndrome. The were so used to getting murdered behind porous lines that when they finally got a decent team around them they were still expecting to get creamed within 2 seconds of a snap and would rush into bad decisions/poor throws.

2016 Carson Wentz

IMHO, both Couch and Frye and Weeden had decision making problems, they just couldn't make the decision fast enough, and things only got worst when they were having a beating, instead of being faster they would take longer and take up beatings.

The proof of the pudding they were not so good QB's is that they were outplayed by the backups.

Still don't get how with probowl LT, C and RT people say we had a bad oline....

Way to early to tell. If you call that successful than I don't know what to tell you

There was talk after the 1999 draft that Couch would have dropped to around pick #10 if we didn't draft him.
Still think it was a mistake to take him that high.

Couch and Frye ...no Thomas no Mack. The oline was beyond bad.

He was successful as a rookie. Won more than the Browns by a long shot.

Passed on McNabb, Culpepper, Edgrrin James, Ricky Williams, and Champ Baily and took Couch.....Ouch

Timid could not read coverages post-snap. That's a killer. He also held the ball way too long at times and took dumb sacks. He would then check down instead of trying for the first down. I saw him in practice and he was goofing off. It used to [censored] the players off. They were ready to mutiny if Butch had named him a starter that one year.

Dude was one of the worst qbs ever to be taken that high.

The mistake wasn't drafting Couch #1, IMHO the main mistake was hanging so much time with him when IMHO his problems were so obvious.

IMHO, Couch was never a good/average NFL QB, and that was very obvious after the 2nd season, the beating and arm problem was just an excuse, TC problems was in his head.

By the way, If I recall correctly Charlie Frye played with both JT and Mack and behind the line that allowed DA to go to the probowl.

Couch did the same thing with Holcombe (sp)...

We had Joe Thomas, Hank Fraley, Eric Steinbach, Ryan Tucker, and Kevin Shaffer, IIRC.

It is a mistake for any team with an expansion caliber OL, defense, etc to take a QB #1.. always was. Then the Texans were dumb enough to watch what we did and think, "Hey, but we can make it work this time."....

If I was ever rich enough to become an expansion team owner, the NFL would hate me. I would draft #1 every year for the first 5 years and for the first 3 years I would take nothing but OL and Defensive front 7 in rounds 1-4 every single year. And I might be trading out of #1 every year to acquire more picks unless there was an absolute stud LT or Pass rusher available.. I'd spend at least 12 top picks on those positions before I even considered taking a QB or a skill position player.

I agree w/all except the trading of Frye. We traded him because we thought he sucked. We drafted BQ shortly afterwards and that sure wasn't to help w/DA's "confidence problems."

Man, I'll never forget that first game of 2007...it was actually the game where I met a bunch of people on this board for the first time. Can't believe it's been a decade. Feels like yesterday.

That was quite possibly the best offensive line we fielded...but Ryan Tucker actually didn't take over until I believe the Seahawks game. Before him, it was Seth McKinney.

Of course, you couldn't tell that line was so great in that first game with Chuck Frye running steadily into sack after sack. That was the same year we had drafted BQ, but he held out and wasn't even close to being ready for the start of the season...let alone ready in general.

I remember everyone wanted BQ to come in, and DA actually got booed when he came in after the half. He seemed to change a lot of people's minds after the Bengals game the following week though.

We then traded Chuck Frye to Mike Holmgren and the Seahawks. Had to be awkward when Frye showed back up in that stadium the same season on the opposing team. Then we proceeded to hire the guy who traded for Chuck Frye to come in and fix our team...