Yesterday’s trade deadline had some significant moves, with the 49ers trading with the Patriots for QB Jimmy Garoppolo and the Bills trading with the Panthers for WR Kelvin Benjamin. These individual moves enable the 49ers to finally get a QB, the Patriots future picks, the Bills a true receiver for Tyrod Taylor and the Panthers some future picks.
Yet the day wasn’t done yet as the Browns and the Bengals were ready to pull the trigger on a trade for AJ McCarron, giving the Browns an upgrade an QB. With a few minutes to go before the trade deadline, the deal was basically done and all that was needed was email communication with the League and McCarron would be a Brown.
But these are the Browns, so you know something had to go wrong. And that something was an email mishap that crushed the deal and left the Browns, and their fans, stunned.
According to Mary Kay Cabbot of Cleveland.com, an email was sent by Chris Cooper, the Browns director of football administration, to the Bengals before the deadline, but the Bengals had not seen it because they were working filing paperwork with the League and they had not expected it from Cooper but rather from the Browns’ Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown, who had been working on the trade with the Bengals. Not recognizing the name, the Bengals overlooked it as time was counting down to the trade deadline and by the time it was noticed, which was before the deadline, things still weren’t right because the Browns had not communicated with the league about the trade or sent them documentation about it.
So while the Bengals rushed to get everything done, including notifying the League, the Browns had not sent anything to the League, which eventually killed the deal.
According to the same story, “A source also told cleveland.com that if the Browns had simply copied the NFL on the document they sent to the Bengals, the trade would have gone through.”
Needless to say, Twitter had a field day with the Browns.
Shelby on Twitter
I’m gonna be the Cleveland Browns for Halloween tonight and do nothing.
Monte the Color Man on Twitter
Congratulations to the Cleveland Browns! The first team in NFL history to go 0-2 during the bye week! https://t.co/pOzbojAkWE
Jack Freeman on Twitter
AJ McCarron when the clock said 4:00pm. https://t.co/BXadJIJcHX
’03 Kliff Kingsbury on Twitter
AJ McCarron when he saw he wasn’t being traded to Cleveland… https://t.co/AfIBCBNFzv
This is just another example of the Browns going full Browns on themselves. And with a record of 0-8, and a two year record of 2-23, the team is not going anywhere fast. At least they have a bye this week to fall back from the public eye and, more importantly, the ever watching eye of Twitter.
