Jimmy Garoppolo giving the Browns another top-four pick

Posted by Darin Gantt on December 19, 2017, 7:15 AM EST
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Jimmy Garoppolo is changing the face of the 2018 NFL Draft, and helping the Browns even though he’s not there.

With the new 49ers quarterback leading them on a three-game winning streak, he’s dropping them lower and lower in the order, and he’s giving the Browns a second top-four draft pick in the process.

If the season ended today, the Browns would be picking first and fourth, with the 49ers pushing the pick formerly owned by the Texans up the ladder. Also, a lot of people would be saying: “Why did the season end the Tuesday after Week 15?”

The 0-14 Browns can clinch the top spot this week with a loss or a Giants (2-12) win. The Colts (3-11) are currently third, with the Texans pick atop the group of 4-10 teams, followed by the 49ers in the fifth spot, then the Bears and Buccaneers. The Bengals (5-8) would pick eighth, followed by the Broncos and Jets.

Draft order ties are broken by strength of schedule. And with all these guys out of the playoff hunt, it at least gives them something to think about these final two weeks (other than, you know, Christmas and New Year’s plans).

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40 responses to “Jimmy Garoppolo giving the Browns another top-four pick”

  1. Jimmy is also giving them one more QB to add to the list of those they regret not pursuing, right after Deshaun and Carson.

  3. .
    I would expect a lot of movement at the top of the draft as there are too many teams chasing too few QBs.
    .

  4. Only fair weathered fans care about the order of the draft. I hope the Niners win out. Idc about what order they pick. Ill take a win over picking a spot higher. The draft is full of busts and steals. I.e. Round 6 199th pick, 2000 draft, aka Tom Brady.

  7. Before we go crazy and hand all of this credit to Garoppolo (though he looks very promising), let’s remember that SF had a long stretch earlier in the season when the team lost multiple OT games and a whole bundle by tiny margins. This has always been a better team than its record (remember when people were picking it to upset the Dallas Cowboys? That big loss was the start of SF’s rough stretch), and it likely would have gotten the last couple of wins even without the new QB. Garoppolo has just made it even easier (and it’s too bad he wasn’t around at the start of the year).

  11. The Browns missed on wentz, Goff, Watson, and now Garropollo. As a lifelong rams fan, I was terrified when the 9ers traded for him, but also dumbfounded that the Browns didn’t give up their second first for him. What an effing steal. For a team that needs a qb and a verified stud in garropollo, the Browns are proving why they’re the Browns.

  14. The Texans had the number 1 pick overall and they passed on Blake Bortles. They picked Jadeveon Clowney instead. The Jaguars are having a great year and they will go to the playoffs with Blake Bortles. Ultimately it is what you do with your draft pick that matters.

  15. See, Sashi Brown was a genius. He KNEW that acquiring Jimmy G for the Browns would only hurt their true purpose of collecting high draft picks.

    All of you other teams winning games are doing it wrong. Suckers. Also, see you at the 0-16 parade.

  18. cafetero1075 says:
    December 19, 2017 at 8:38 am
    Doesn’t really explain why.

    Yeah, they didn’t really do a very good job of explaining it, but the Browns on the Texans first round pick from the DeShaun Watson trade during the draft last year. So the more games the 49ers win, the higher up the board the Texans pick goes

  21. This is the 49ers. We’re not multiple top 5 pick offenders. That’s for losing franchises. We only need a top 5 pick once to get out of rock bottom.

    The 49er goal is to have the lowest draft position possible, and if we’re in the top 5 it’s because we traded up to the top 5. Not because of our record.

    Jimmy “Franchise” G is a true 49er.

  22. I feel a little more confident with Dorsey as GM and making those picks than I ever did with the Harvard genius, Sashay Brown.
    However, it doesn’t matter the talent drafted if you don’t have the coaching to TEACH and COACH that talent how to play at the NFL level. Hue Jackson may be a great person but he sure hasn’t shown anybody what a great (offense) mastermind he is supposed to be. Every year this team looks worse as the season progresses.

  24. “winningisabrees says:
    December 19, 2017 at 9:28 am
    sooner or later, they gonna have to pay all these first rounders. they are lost in the woods.”

    Obviously you have not been paying attention. The Browns never keep their first rounders through or past their first contract.

  30. This could be really good for the Browns if Dorsey is better than the previous regime (it would be hard not to). They could get a QB and swap one of those picks to a team looking to move up and get a QB. That would still give them two first round picks and some extra picks to work with. They need a lot of things so they could either keep them or trade them for a player that could help them. I’m not a big fan of doing what Sashi Brown did and keep trading away picks for future picks. They need to do something now unless they want to lose their up-to-this-point patient fanbase.

  31. Garoppolo has one of the fastest releases I’ve ever seen. He’s also accurate enough and can read through the progressions.

    I can’t believe all they got was a 2nd rounder. But then BB was playing for ‘now’ in case Brady fell apart and needed to wait as long as possible. If Brady was not a freak of nature, JG would have been great in NE.

  33. Fun fact. After the 49ers picked Carlos Hyde, they had a chance to pick Garoppolo with the extra pick they have in the second round. They traded that pick to Jacksonville, which had picked Blake Bortles in the first Round. So Jacksonville did not pick Garoppolo. New England drafted next and they picked Garoppolo. The Niners had worked Garoppolo out before the draft. They could have had both Hyde and Garoppolo all these years, but then they probably would not have readied him for the position as well as New England did.

  34. It would be kind of funny if the Browns trade away the #1 and pick a QB with the #4 and that QB turns out to be so-so, while the #1 turns out to be very good.

    Imagine trading away Carson Wentz and drafting a QB as good as Ryan Tannehill/Andy Dalton.

  35. The Browns had a history of picking QB in the first round that did not work out. The latest one is Johnny Football. Hue Jackson gave up on him not because he was not good on the field (he had more wins even though he started fewer games than the other QBs they had in his final year) but because of allegations off the field. The Browns would be smart bringing back Manziel because he is better than anybody they now have.

  38. I’ve seen this story play out too many times. The Browns will pick the best available pass rusher at #1 overall and wait until the QB falls to them at #4. The problem with that is smarter GM’s will trade up to #2 and #3 and pick the QB the Browns wanted, which will cause them to trade back and gather more picks for the next GM to spend. Like the great Bon Jovi once said…It’s all the same, only the names have changed.

  39. I remember when a lot of folks (including many Pats fans) were comparing Jimmy G to Mallet, Cassel and Hoyer…saying Jimmy was destined to flop. My response was always that Jimmy wasn’t a knucklehead like Mallet, and had far more talent than Cassel or Hoyer. Welp…

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