RATING THE JETS’ DRAFT:
How one QB will affect three franchises
Mitchell Trubisky was off the board within minutes of last week’s NFL Draft but he will have a major impact for years on three franchises. Trubisky was redshirted as a freshman at North Carolina then sat on the bench for another year before starting 13 games last season. That either caused teams to fall in love with what they saw in 2016 or run away from him because they had not seen enough.
Now Trubisky will make the QB-needy Browns and 49ers look like fools for not taking him or make the Bears look like dopes for giving up third- and fourthrounds picks this year and a third-round pick next year just to trade up one spot to guarantee they get him.
If Trubisky becomes a franchise quarterback or if he becomes a bust, somebody is likely to pay for it with their job.
Here are the risks the Browns, 49ers and Bears took:
l Browns: Despite last-minute speculation they were going to take Trubisky, they were locked in for weeks on Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett. Then with their second first-round pick at No. 12, they passed on Clemson QB DeShaun Watson when they traded down with the Texans to No. 25 to take Michigan S-LB-PR Jabrill Peppers. The Chiefs had already jumped ahead of the Browns going all the way from No. 27 to No. 10 in a deal with the Bills to draft Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes.
Clearly, if the Browns wanted Mahomes, they could have moved up a few spots from No. 12 to get him. They finally took Notre Dame QB DeShone Kizer in the second round. In the last two drafts, the Browns traded away the chance to take Carson Wentz, passed on Trubisky, didn’t move up for Mahomes, traded away the chance to take Watson and came away with Kizer, whose game doesn’t match his ego.
l 49ers: They signed Brian Hoyer to be the starter and Matt Barkley to back him up, which is not exactly having Joe Montana and Steve Young on the roster. They might have been better off finding a way to keep Colin Kaepernick.
The 49ers didn’t view Trubisky as a franchise QB and they are not alone. They wanted Stanford DE Solomon Thomas at No. 2. When the Bears offered them three picks to jump up one spot fearing there were
other
teams ready to make the move with the 49ers, rookie GM John Lynch completed a can’t-lose trade. He added three draft picks and still got Thomas. But if Trubisky turns into a star, then it almost doesn’t matter how good Thomas is because QB is the most valuable position in sports. Whether or not he was bluffing, Lynch did a great job convincing Chicago he was trading the pick to another team that wanted Trubisky. Lynch used the fourth-round pick acquired from the Bears to trade into the back end of the first round to get Alabama LB Reuben Foster, who had fallen because he was thrown out of the Combine for arguing with a hospital worker. He also produced a diluted urine sample. Lynch said the 49ers got two of the top three players on their board. Garrett was obviously the other. Lynch did take Iowa QB C.J. Beathard in the third round. He is the grandson of former Washington and San Diego GM Bobby Beathard. l Bears: They fell in love with Trubisky after GM Ryan Pace and coach John Fox had dinner with him when they held a private workout in Chapel Hill. Poor Mike Glennon. As he was trying to establish himself in Tampa, the Bucs took Jameis Winston No. 1 overall in 2015. Then he signs a three-year, $45 million free-agent contract with the Bears in March that included $18.5 million guaranteed ($16 million this year and $2.5 million in 2018), and less than two months later the Bears draft his replacement.
Pace gave up an awful lot to move up one spot. But here’s the deal: If Trubisky is the real deal, it will look like he fleeced the 49ers. He didn’t give up a future firstround pick or any second-round picks. If Pace swung and missed, he will be looking for another job in the next few years.
GANG’S SAFETY DANCE
It was unusual for Jets GM Mike Maccagnan to double down on safeties in the first two rounds with Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye, but the Jets were horrendous in the back end last year. He later took corners Jeremy Clark and Derrick Jones in the sixth round. That gives the Jets four new defensive players. Can a team fix the secondary in one draft? The 1981 49ers had the all-time best draft for defensive backs when they took cornerback Ronnie Lott (he later played safety) in the first round, cornerback Eric Wright with the second of their two second-round picks, safety Carlton Williamson in the third round and cornerback Lynn Thomas in the fifth round. They all played a key role when the 49ers went on to win the Super Bowl that season and Lott became a Hall of Famer. … Now that the
draft is over, Tampa looks to be the best spot for Ryan Fitzpatrick. He would be a good backup and mentor for Winston. No-names Ryan Griffin and Sean Renfree are listed as Winston’s backups after Glennon signed with the Bears. Kaepernick and Jay Cutler are also still on the market.
WEBB SLINGERS
In 2004, the Giants (Eli Manning), Chargers (Philip Rivers) and Steelers (Ben Roethlisberger) all landed franchise quarterbacks who are still going. The Giants are the first of the three to draft a quarterback with the realistic hope they have found an eventual successor when they picked Cal’s Davis Webb in the third round, No. 87 overall. But it’s not the highest any of the three teams have selected a quarterback since 2004. The Chargers took Charlie Whitehurst in the third round (No. 81) overall in 2006, but with Rivers about to begin his first season as the season after Drew Brees signed with the Saints, the idea was to get a backup for Rivers.
BROWN, BELICHICK & JIMMY G
The Browns own the Texans’ first two picks in the 2018 draft: The first-round pick came in the Watson trade and the secondround pick for taking Brock Osweiler’s $16 million guaranteed off their hands in March. ... Bill Belichick traded all his original draft picks last week as he moved around the board. The most significant: His No. 1 went to the Saints for WR Brandin Cooks and his No. 2 went to the Panthers for DT Kony Ealy. New England forfeited its fourthround pick as part of the Deflategate punishment. … The Patriots didn’t trade Jimmy Garoppolo despite constant prodding by the Browns. He is worth more to them as insurance behind Tom Brady than what they could have picked up from Cleveland in a trade — most likely the 12th overall pick and a third-round pick. If Brady is still playing at a high level in 2017, it’s likely New England will lose Jimmy G as a free agent in 2018 unless they franchise him, which at over $20 million is a longshot. Brady’s base salary in 2018 is $14 million.