The Philadelphia Eagles clearly wanted one of the top two quarterbacks in this NFL draft, with Carson Wentz being their most likely target. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns are putting an awful lot of trust in Robert Griffin III.
Those are the main takeaways from Wednesday’s major trade between the Browns and Eagles, the second blockbuster deal that reshaped the top of the draft. The Eagles traded up six spots to get the No. 2 overall choice from the Browns, with a package that includes the eighth overall selection, plus third- and fourth-round choices this year, a first-rounder next year and a second-rounder in 2018. The Browns also send Philadelphia a conditional fourth-round pick next year. The deal comes nearly a week after the Los Angeles Rams moved up from No. 15 to No. 1 overall in a trade with the Tennessee Titans.
The Eagles were believed to have been in the running last week to obtain the draft’s top overall selection from the Titans but were outmaneuvered, or outbid, by the Rams in a trade completed last Wednesday and announced last Thursday morning. But the Eagles kept at it and now presumably will end up with whichever top quarterback, Cal’s Jared Goff or North Dakota State’s Wentz, is not taken by the Rams.
The Rams have not said which quarterback they will select, and there were conflicting reports on whether they had Goff or Wentz in the lead when they made the trade with the Titans. But some talent evaluators within the sport have become increasingly convinced that the Rams prefer Goff, regarded as the more polished and pro-ready passer of the two.
There also are those within the sport who have been convinced over the past week that the Eagles have been in pursuit of Wentz. So things could work out just fine for both franchises on draft night.
Wentz is considered by some talent evaluators to have greater down-the-road NFL potential than Goff. But he must make a huge jump to the NFL from a smaller school. In Philadelphia, he would have time to make that adjustment because he probably would not be asked to be the starter early in his career. The Eagles re-signed Sam Bradford to a two-year contract earlier this offseason before free agency. They also signed free agent quarterback Chase Daniel, who had been in Kansas City with Doug Pederson, then the offensive coordinator of the Chiefs and now the first-year head coach of the Eagles.
“It’s a great situation to be in,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said last month at the annual league meeting of the Bradford and Daniel deals. “And we’re still looking for a third quarterback. Somewhere in the draft – like we used to do. We would always, each year or every other year, try to draft a quarterback. . . . It’s not somebody that has to step in. Then hopefully we can find somebody throughout the draft.”
The Eagles aren’t finding just anybody. Clearly they hope and expect they are getting their franchise quarterback of the future.
The Browns, of course, have been in a failed pursuit of a franchise quarterback for what is, in NFL terms, forever. When the Titans possessed the No. 1 pick, it appeared the Browns might have their choice of quarterbacks in this draft class. Now they have moved out of position to select either Goff or Wentz.
The trade perhaps means the Browns really liked Goff and maybe were not as trusting of Wentz’s NFL prospects. Believing they could no longer get Goff with the Rams now picking No. 1, they opted to maximize the value of the pick – and increase their ability to address multiple needs – by trading down.
The Browns, at eighth, still might be able to select Paxton Lynch of Memphis, widely regarded as the No. 3 quarterback in this draft class. But that is no sure thing. The San Francisco 49ers have the seventh pick and might need a quarterback, particularly if they trade Colin Kaepernick. The New York Jets, Buffalo Bills or another quarterback-needy team could trade up ahead of the Browns. The Browns might have to wait to get another quarterback, such as Michigan State’s Connor Cook or Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg, later in the draft.
It is a major gamble by a team that has been so wrong so often about quarterbacks, most recently when it used a first-round pick in 2014 on Johnny Manziel.
The Browns and their first-year coach, Hue Jackson, are said to think highly of Griffin, the former NFL offensive rookie of the year for Washington who was signed by Cleveland following his release by the Redskins earlier this offseason. And that’s fine. Griffin deserved a second chance somewhere. Maybe, just maybe Jackson and the Browns can help him recapture some of his rookie-year magic.
But now the Browns have narrowed their alternatives. Now a career turnaround by Griffin has become something closer to a must for the Browns than a hope. They’d better be right. But their own history is not exactly reassuring.