Report: Browns willing to trade pair of No. 1s to Titans
By Thomas Moore
Jan 1, 2015; Pasadena, CA, USA; Florida State Seminoles cornerback Ronald Darby (3) defends against Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota (8) in the 2015 Rose Bowl college football game at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
The Cleveland Browns have reportedly offered two No. 1 draft picks to Tennessee in exchange for the Titans’ first-round pick, according to ESPN.
The Browns would presumably use the Tennessee pick, the second overall in the draft, to selection Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.
Browns offer two 1st-round picks to Titans for No. 2 overall selection, where they would plan to take Marcus Mariota. (via @PatMcManamon)
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 29, 2015
While this rumor can certainly be filed under the spicy heading, it is hard to know how much value to place on it. Did this come from the Browns, signaling a willingness to make the kind of “splashy move” that owner Jimmy Haslam is rumored to love? (Despite the fact that the Browns really have not made any “splashy moves” since Haslam bought the team?)
Or could this be someone from the Titans floating it out there in an attempt to artificially set the asking price for their pick?
The Browns have been linked to Mariota for more than a year now, but Farmer played down his interest just last week.
“At the end of the day, the objective is to improve your football team and to win football games,” Farmer said during a press conference last week. “I get that there’s this notion at times that there’s this silver bullet or there’s this one magic player that’s going to walk in here on a horse and we’re going to start winning games and he’s going to be the reason we did it. I just don’t believe in the fairy tale anymore.”
It’s possible that Farmer has cooled slightly on Mariota after watching Brandon Weeden and Johnny Manziel – the last two quarterbacks the Browns drafted from a collegiate spread offense – struggle at the pro level.
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But as more and more colleges turn to an offense based on a quick pace, the options of finding a quarterback who doesn’t run a spread offense is dwindling, a fact not lost on Farmer.
“The NFL is not getting a pipeline of traditional NFL quarterbacks the way that they used to,” Farmer said. “The league in general has got to figure out how you take guys from this system, change kind of what they are if you are going to do something different with them and plug them in. That’s what it comes down to. You have to figure out either how to make the adjustment or everybody is going to start running the spread in the National Football League.”
No one knows what the Browns intend to do once NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell opens the NFL Draft on Thursday night in Chicago. We’re sure Farmer and the team have a plan, but you never know how things are going to break once the teams go on the clock.
The only certainty is that we are just a little more than 24 hours away from finding out.
What do you think about the Browns trading a pair of No. 1 picks to the Titans?