Moves secured QBs for others
Trading down took Browns out of mix for Watson and Wentz.
HOUSTON — The Browns’ decision to trade down from No. 2 overall in the 2016 draft enabled the Philadelphia Eagles to land their franchise quarterback in Carson Wentz, and the Texans to land what looks like theirs in Deshaun Watson — all before the Browns have solved their never-ending quarterback conundrum.
As the 0-5 Browns play in Houston today against Watson and the Texans, their possible quarterback of the future in DeShone Kizer is sitting on the bench, while Kevin Hogan, who wasn’t in the mix for the starting job in camp, becomes the 28th quarterback to start for the Browns since 1999.
Meanwhile, Watson became the first rookie in NFL history with five touchdowns in back-toback games, and Wentz is playing so well for the Eagles that he’s being mentioned as an NFL MVP candidate.
“He’s right up there with the
Aaron Rodgers, the Tom Bradys and the Peyton Mannings,” one high-level NFL personnel executive said.
“He will make a lot of people’s careers,” said another league insider.
Wentz, whom the Browns determined wouldn’t be a top-20 quarterback in the NFL according to Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, is coming off a 28-23 victory over the Panthers on Thursday night that improved the Eagles to 5-1.
He threw three TD passes in that game, and four the week before in a 34-7 victory over the Cardinals. He’s now No. 8 in the NFL with a 99.6 rating, and has thrown 13 TDs against only three interceptions.
And he’s doing it with flair and moxie, sidestepping pressure, completing balls while getting drilled, scrambling around to extend plays and putting it on the money.
“If you watch the touchdown he threw to (tight end) Zach Ertz, the ball was perfectly placed where only he could get it,” said Browns receiver Bryce Treggs, who played nine games for the Eagles as a rookie last season and spent all preseason with Wentz until he was waived in the final cuts. “The little under route he threw to Nelson (Agholor) so he can catch and run with it, little things he’s doing like that are great. They’re killing it.”
Treggs doesn’t think the Rodgers-Manning-Brady comparisons are far-fetched.
“I could definitely see that,” he said. “He’s definitely in the conversation with the elite quarterbacks and it’s clear as day. The first thing you have to have is the physical ability and he has that. He’s a big-body, strong arm guy and he’ll run through tackles and stuff like that. Also, his accuracy has improved drastically. He worked really hard this offseason, got chemistry with his receivers, his running backs and now they’re rolling.”
So how did it come to this, that the Browns solved the Eagles’ quarterback dilemma and the Texans’ — all evolving from one trade — before definitively fixing their own?
It began with the move down from No. 2 to No. 8 with the Eagles last year and all of the spinoff trades that followed. The Eagles snatched up Wentz at No. 2 and could be set for a decade or more at the position, which is what one league exec said that the Browns would be if they took him at No. 2 last year.
In this year’s draft, the Browns traded the No. 12 overall pick that came from the original trade down with the Eagles to the Texans for the No. 25 overall pick and the Texans’ first-rounder in 2018. The Texans jumped at the chance to grab Watson, the national championship winner from Clemson, and like the Eagles, seem set at the position for awhile.
The Browns, meanwhile, used the No. 25 overall pick on safety Jabrill Peppers, and then spent their No. 52 pick — from a spinoff of the Eagles trade — on Kizer, whom coach Hue Jackson still believes can be the Browns’ quarterback of the future even though he needs some time off.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that the Browns have “lost” the trade. The final tally won’t be in for several years, and it will largely depend on if they discover their franchise quarterback in the haul.
The Browns can still come out OK if they draft a Sam Darnold or a Josh Rosen next year and he’s great, or if Kizer develops into a bigtime winner.
Treggs, who’s now played with both Wentz and Kizer, believes he can make the jump.
“I see great things in DeShone,” he said. “He’s not too far off.”
And if the Browns had drafted Wentz?
“Where would we be right now?” said Treggs. “No one will ever know.”
And if they had drafted Watson?
They might get a pretty good idea today in Houston.