Part of the job at this time of the year entails chatting with folks who work in the league.
Conversations ramble between what their team is up to, to the draft, to their golf game, to the greatness of Tom Brady, to what’s on Netflix.
Thursday I was chatting with an insider who knows offense and quarterbacks. In the course of the conversation, I threw out a question that came to mind because ESPN’s Bill Barnwell had opined in his “five things each team should do” story that the Browns should trade the first pick in the draft.
My knee-jerk reaction was that the No. 1 pick is too valuable to trade. The second is that between Julio Jones and Carson Wentz, Browns fans have had enough of trades down in the draft.
Regardless, the idea had me thinking. So I posed question to the insider: Would you trade the first pick in the draft for Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo?
The answer was immediate: “If I’m the Browns, yes. I’d want Garoppolo and another pick though, maybe a third- or fourth-rounder.”
After picking myself up from the floor, I continued the conversation and asked the insightful question: “So you’d trade the first pick in the draft for Garoppolo and a third-round pick?”
“Absolutely.”
Which made me surmise that Garoppolo really must be good.
“I can’t say I’m a giant fan,” the insider said. “But at some point you have to get someone who has a chance to start at the position. I just don’t know if the college guys this year are ready, or as good. They passed on Wentz. Now they have to find somebody.”
If one individual thinks this way, others do as well. And in some ways it’s not outrageous. The Bears and 49ers are rumored to be considering Garoppolo, and they don’t have an extra first-round pick to offer. One of those teams may be willing to trade the second or third pick. The first pick is only one or two slots away.
Which pretty much shows how the quarterback position is viewed around the league.
Teams have to have one, and if they don’t, they have to find one.
No matter what it takes.
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