The Browns stressed that they didn’t intentionally sabotage a trade for AJ McCarron. Instead, they fell victim to their own incompetence.
Cleveland once again failed to acquire a legitimate quarterback — or at least one who could maybe start more than four straight games — by botching its chance to better a winless team by acquiring McCarron from the Bengals at the trade deadline. The Browns blamed the failed trade on an unseen email by the Bengals, while many coaches on Cleveland’s staff, according to CBS Sports, believed GM Sashi Brown had “no intention” of completing the deal.
As the story goes, head coach Hue Jackson wanted McCarron, lobbying the Browns to shed two draft picks, a second- and third-rounder for the ex-Alabama standout who’s mostly sat comfortably behind Andy Dalton since being drafted in 2014. Brown, who has hoarded numerous draft picks since replacing Ray Farmer in 2016, reportedly didn’t want to part with the picks.
Considering the Browns have traded down a few times, passing on quarterbacks (See: Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson), the story seems within the realm of possibility. But Brown said that claim is “wholly untrue.”
“This is just a matter of getting to a deal too late in the process,” Brown said Monday.
The Browns insist that they followed their long trade protocol of signing documents and sending it over to the proposed team for finalization. It was Cleveland’s understanding that the Bengals would be the one to send the necessary documents to league officials, but the Bengals said they missed the Browns’ email and sent in their own draft at 3:59 p.m. The Browns then followed their long span of head-scratching, mind-boggling ineptitude by realizing last minute that they had to submit their own end of the deal, which they only found out after the deadline.
Unsurprisingly, it was yet another “tough, tough week” for the Browns public relations staff, according to Brown.
“I think both sides, both Cincinnati and us, tried our damnedest to try to get the paperwork in at the last minute,” Brown said. “We’re talking minutes and seconds before the trade deadline ended. We were on the phone with the NFL at the time to try to make it happen. It did not happen.”
In a further attempt in his PR cleanup, Brown also delved into arguments about how the Browns botched evaluations on other franchise-looking quarterbacks, like Wentz and Watson, whom the Browns passed on.
“I don’t shy away from missed opportunities at all,” Brown said. “That’s going to be a piece of it. There’s a lot of non-quarterbacks out there right now, frankly, that are playing well right now, too, that we’d love to have on our team. But we’re not going to get every one right. We haven’t, and we won’t moving forward.”
The Browns remain winless and franchise quarterback-less heading into Week 10.