Cleveland Browns: Did Sashi Brown Sabotage McCarron Trade?
By Erik Lambert
Somebody is going to get fired by the Cleveland Browns after the 2017 season is over. Whether it’s Hue Jackson or Sashi Brown remains to be seen.
Jimmy Haslam and the rest of ownership made a bold move when they hired Brown. He didn’t have a deep background in scouting or player evaluation. He was more of a money man, managing salary cap and contracts. To put him in charge of the roster was a big risk by the team. It’s looking more and more like a disastrous decision.
Not only has Brown failed to build a winning roster through two years (Cleveland has one win in 24 games) but he’s also proving to be a terrible leader. This is evidenced by the growing list of rumors coming out of the organization that the coaches are about ready to stage a mutiny against him for repeated failures to produce a viable quarterback.
His latest involved the botched trade for Bengals backup A.J. McCarron. A series of paper work and miscommunication blunders led to the teams failing to complete a deal before the October 31st deadline. As it turns out as information keeps coming out on what happened, there is an undercurrent of belief that Brown was a primary component to the mishap. Intentionally.
Coaches believe Brown failed to complete McCarron trade on purpose
Cleveland coaches already have a problem with Brown because of his rather pedestrian work ethic. He rarely stays in the building past 5:00 and doesn’t put in extra work to make the team better. That’s why he missed out on the Jimmy Garoppolo trade. However, now there’s a growing sense that Brown sabotaged the teams’ efforts to acquire McCarron. This time on purpose.
"“The chasm between the Browns coaching staff and front office grew even deeper in the aftermath of the failed attempt to land quarterback AJ McCarron from the Bengals, with team and league sources saying numerous coaches believe GM Sashi Brown had no intention of actually completing the agreed-upon trade.The Browns failed to send in signed paperwork to the NFL or call into the league office to potentially finalize the trade before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline after making a verbal agreement with the Bengals to send two draft picks for McCarron. The degree of compensation — a second- and a third-round pick — struck the rest of the league as wildly inflated, and while rival executives can see why Brown would have balked in the end, backing out of a verbal commitment to another team is considered a massive breach of protocol within the NFL, leaving the Bengals, and Browns coaches, furious.”"
If this is true then Brown has lost even more credibility. Teams don’t like doing business with a man who might sabotage deals. Already his efforts are having an effect on their draft hopes in 2018. Word is top quarterback Sam Darnold will return to USC. Not because he feels he’s not ready. He has no intention of declaring if Cleveland holds the #1 overall pick.
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It’s a sad day when a team sinks to the levels of the Robert Irsay Colts in the 1980s. Brown isn’t the only man responsible for this. Cleveland was headed in this direction for years. At the same time an actual willingness to go back on his word is a surefire way to get fired in the NFL.