Amid the insanity that was the 2017 NFL Draft's first round (full grades from Pete Prisco here, winners and losers from yours truly here), a wild rumor about the Browns trying to trade for Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins broke out.
It would have been a crazy cherry on an insane sundae, but it appears the jar wasn't ever really opened.
The hypothetical deal was quickly shot down by Washington reporters, and when asked about a possible trade following the first-round action, both the Redskins and Browns denied that any trade talks ever occurred.
Coach Jay Gruden said that the Redskins did not receive "one call" about trading for Cousins.
"Not one call. Not one," Gruden said. "There was no talk about it. Nothing."
And Browns GM Sashi Brown went even further, calling the report of a possible Cousins trade "bad reporting" when asked by reporters about whether the Browns were scrambling for Cousins.
"Bad reporting is what I would say," Brown said.
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There's no question that the Browns probably got snaked during the first round. Assuming their interest in Mitchell Trubisky was real, and they were actually considering taking him at No. 1 overall, they would have been horribly disappointed when the Bears gave up a bevy of picks to move up one spot and grab Trubisky with the No. 2 overall pick. (Cleveland was almost certainly not as disappointed as Prisco, who gave the trade and pick a D- and definitely not as disappointed as Bears fans, who howled in disappointment after the pick.)
And they probably weren't thrilled when, while sitting at No. 12 overall, the Chiefs came flying up the board and snared Patrick Mahomes with the 11th overall pick. The Browns had a shot to take Deshaun Watson, but it's pretty clear they didn't believe he was a future franchise quarterback, because they traded back down with the Texans to allow Houston to draft Watson.
All of this trading and the Browns did not once move up the board, which would involve giving up picks for a quarterback. Which may give us some insight into the idea of the Browns trading for Cousins. It would have cost substantial draft capital and this Cleveland regime has shown again and again they are not interested in parting ways with picks if those picks can be used to generate more opportunities to draft quality football players.
A Cousins trade doesn't fit the rep of this Browns front office, which is probably why there were never any calls between the two teams.
