Could the Cleveland Browns trade up to land a quarterback?
By Josh Sanchez
The Cleveland Browns have made a lot of moves at quarterback this season. They traded former starter Brady Quinn to the Denver Broncos and released former Pro Bowler and starting quarterback Derek Anderson. Cleveland brought in Seneca Wallace from the Seahawks and also former Panthers starter Jake Delhomme. All of the moves were questionable and slightly impulsive, but it may be part of Browns president Mike Holmgren’s bigger plan.
Cleveland currently holds the seventh overall pick in the draft. The Browns also hold a number of high picks in the following rounds.
A league insider told ProFootballTalk.com, “By its very nature coaching is an emotional profession and impatience is more often driven by short-term emotion. . . . How can you ask a person whose short-term thought process is to ‘win now’ to have oversight of the idea to ‘build for the future’? They can’t do it. . . . They just can’t help themselves.”
Howard Balzer of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat is one who believes that Holmgren dropped a hint of planning to trade up in the draft after Donovan McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins.
Balzer wrote:
"The Cleveland Browns have five picks in the first three rounds of the draft, including three in the third round. Their picks overall are seventh, 38th, 71st, 85th and 92nd.Could the Browns end up being a trade partner with the Rams for the first selection in the draft? It might be a longshot, but don’t automatically dismiss it either. They obviously have the ammunition.While most believe general manager Billy Devaney is simply being coy by saying the Rams have yet to make up their minds about selecting Bradford because a deal is believed to be highly unlikely, what Holmgren subsequently said opens the door for potential talks with the Rams."
The quote from Holmgren that Balzer was referring to is, “The only way I was going to take all those early draft picks in rounds 1, 2 and 3 and use them would be for a young draft choice that I thought could be the quarterback for the next 15 years.”
So the Rams could be looking to trade down and acquire more picks to help their struggling franchise and Cleveland could have interest in moving up, but we will have to sit back and see if a trade happens.