Bungling Cleveland Browns are at it again

Botched trade for quarterback the latest fiasco

A day after, the NFL was still trying to determine how the Cleveland Browns could have botched their pursuit of a quarterback at the trade deadline so badly. First, some wondered how they couldn’t have trumped the 49ers’ offer for Jimmy Garoppolo. Second, and even more damning, many were still trying to figure out the snafu that scuttled a potential deal for Bengals backup quarterback AJ McCarron.

“I don’t know how it happens,” one NFL executive said. “Because I’ve never heard of it happening.”

One theory that was floating around the league: By Monday evening, the Bengals and Browns agreed to rough parameters that would send McCarron to Cleveland for a secondrounder and a third-rounder. Coach Hue Jackson liked McCarron, whom he had coached as Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator for two years, and wanted the deal to happen.

But as the final details were being worked out, news broke that the 49ers had acquired Garoppolo from the New England Patriots for only a second-round pick. Bengals executives worried about how it would look if they gave up more for McCarron than it took to acquire Garoppolo, and so they sent incomplete paperwork to the league and waited until after the Tuesday 4 p.m. deadline to correct it, thereby sabotaging their own pick.

Is that what happened? The dysfunction in Cleveland has made anything seem possible.

Some reports surfaced out of Cleveland that the Browns sent a signed document to Cincinnati for the Bengals to sign, but the Bengals sent a document to the NFL with only one signature. That explanation would put the fault on the Bengals. But it “doesn’t hold any water,” the NFL executive said, because it’s not how the procedure works.

When trades happen, both teams involved send signed PDFs to the league office with identical language, down to the punctuation. The league makes sure they’re in agreement, then make the deal official. And so the idea that the Bengals didn’t send in paperwork they received from the Browns wouldn’t make any sense.

This isn’t the first time the Browns’ front office and Jackson have been at odds. Adding to the dysfunction is the number of camps within the Browns’ executive offices.

The result, by the perception of those within the league, is a disaster. The Browns are 0-8 after going 1-15 last season. They infamously traded out of slots where Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson were drafted, despite having the worst quarterback situation in the league. They could have improved that situation this week, but another front office meltdown prevented it.

“That organization is full of silos,” the executive said.