ESPN (aka TMZ lite) is now reporting that the Browns offered New England their 4th overall pick in the 1st round, and (I’m quoting the Cleveland Plain Dealer here) “other goodies” for Jimmy Garoppolo a couple days before the actual trade. NE nixed the deal, and traded Jimmy G two days later. Who made the decision is up for debate, but to me it makes sense that one of the quotes floating around is that Belichick wouldn’t trade Jimmy or help the Browns “in 100 years.”
Here’s the article:
As it was, the 49ers were the only team that the Patriots negotiated with. You can speculate that Belichick did this as a parting shot at Robert Kraft and his meddling ways, or that Robert Kraft did this as a panacea to his star QB Tom Brady.
Short-term this sorta makes sense for Kraft, but long-term this hurts the team in a big way. Even short-term, the Pats are one hit away from Brian Hoyer running the team. Long-term though they can’t even pretend that Hoyer is nothing but the backup when Brady retires. They need to draft someone, and they REALLY could have helped themselves by taking the Browns 4th pick.
Both sides of the Pats front office of course deny any weirdness, but this smacks to me of Belichick burning a bridge on his way out of coaching the Patriots. I’m sure he wanted his legacy to be setting Jimmy G up as the heir apparent and next gen QB to take new England to the future, until Kraft and Brady subsumed his authority. Belichick is one of the shrewdest GMs out there and this completely looks like a parting shot as Belichick could have easily put himself into the Rosen/Darnold sweepstakes with that 4th pick. Instead he helps us out immensely and moves on to the NY football Giants.
All I can say is, sometimes it IS better to be lucky than good. There seemed to be a convergence of unrelated events to bring this good fortune upon the 49ers.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Is the ken Norton hiring old news here
I’m going to shoot from the hip with this comment. If somebody wants to check the accuracy I’ll check back later. I don’t have time to look stuff up at this moment.
The Browns 4th overall pick was from the Texans. At the time of the trade the Texans were playing well and looked like a potential play-off team. To say the Pats passed up a 4th pick is just 20/20 hind sight. At the time of the trade it probably looked more like a 15-25 overall pick. Better than we offered but not as sensational for a story as a 4th overall.
Hou was sucking. They were somewhere around 3-6 or some shit. The trade was right around the injury iirc, so I don;t know which happened first, but Hou wasn’t going to be a top 10 team by any stretch.
Watson was having a nice season, but JJ Watt was out, as well as Mercilus. They were going to be in the mid to bottom half WITH Watson.
Point being, a mid-to high 1st round pick is MUCH better than a mid to high 2nd round pick. Belichick did us a huge favor by not dealing with Cleveland. I get that he didn’t want Jimmy in the AFC, but still and all, he likely would have done the deal for just about any other AFC team not in his division.
Since we are throwing out theory’s here’s mine. I think belicheck knew just how good Jimmy was and wanted to pair him up with an offensive minded coach as far away from the AFC as possible. It would also serve as a snub to Kraft if Jimmy does what he’s capable of.
Or, he just doesn’t like Cleveland
Yup. Cleveland screwed him over.
At the time of the trade the Texans were 3-4 with Watson making them look like play-off contenders. Cleveland’s 4th overall pick was looking like it would be in the 20s. After the trade Watson was injured during practice. They went 1-8 after the Garoppolo trade. To say they traded the #4 overall pick is an obfuscation by the author. I guess we are to assume everybody knew the Texans would go 1-8 and the 49ers would suddenly win the last 5 games and 6 of 7. We were winless at the time of the trade. It isn’t like NE knew they were passing on a 4th overall, in fact that would be far from the truth..
Makes a lot of sense. Pretty sure no one thought we would go 6 of 7.
Whatevs, Bergs. A mid-round 1st pick is a shit-ton better than a high 2nd round pick. Why did Belichick shine the Browns? Cuz he thought the Texans were gonna win the Super Bowl? And we were gonna get the #1 pick?
Think whatever you want, but 3-4 is not a playoff team. Even in the weak-ass AFC South. Besides, I picked us to run the table before the season started. Sure, 10-6 was off, but all those close losses could have gone either way and I said the back end of the schedule was where we could reel off a bunch of wins. To wit:
unca_chuck says:
September 5, 2017 at 12:36 pm (Edit)
My hope is that the team can stick around the .500 mark till the last 5 games. Even at 5-6 they could run the table. The Bears, Texans, Titans, Jags and Rams close the season. If they have coalesced into a well-oiled machine (or just a decent facsimile), they could win all those games. Boom. 10-6.
Do you want a Brownie button or a chest to put t on. I picked the team to go10-6 providing we stay healthy, we did not stay healthy. BTW, it is eerie seeing you use the Bullit (sic) technique of bringing up old posts.
You’re correct that they gave up a better pick with the Browns regardless but to say they gave up what they did to sensationalize the story makes it feel like the author was peeing on my boot and telling me it was raining. I had to call out the bullshit. And to say the Patriots knew we would finish 6-1 because Unca predicted 10-6 on his blog is laughable. Hell, they should just read blogs instead of calling on their knowledge and instincts! We obviously know better than them.
End of story is Belichick passed up a 1st round pick “and some other goodies” for a 2nd round pick and the right to sign Brian Hoyer. If Hoyer is the kicker in the deal, you are way off.
36 years ago today . . . where were you?
I had just gotten home from skiing in Tahoe and left a day early to watch the game. We watched it at the Dutch Goose in PA . . .
I was in England, hating life and missing the game.
Read a piece quoting Andrew Hawkins, a WR with the Pats. He said in practice Brady would miss 1 throw every 3 practices but Jimmy every 2.5 practices.
It’s an approx of course and probably an exageration, but what he is saying is JG is more accurate than Brady.
He also said JG would tailor his own gaexaggeration, skill set not the other way around which is usual.
I interesting insights.
I’ve seen him play from the stands and on T.V., I really think he could be the next great SF QB. Amazing situational awareness, footwork, ultra fast release and command of the players. Listening to him before taking the field for the game winner sends chills and memories of the all time greats.
Under Walsh 2 wins then 6 wins. Same trend for these Niners so far.
I’m pumped.
Sorry, fat fingers and a cell phone don’t mix well.
You’re right Berger, the author imbelished to emphasize his point, but the bottom line with the Browns oportunity is the Pats werent interested in trading with them at what looks like any price, I find that curious, but love the outcome.
The facts are (as I’ve stated 4 times already) is that Cleveland had more to offer NE than we did. Read into “other goodies” what you will, but sorry you don’t get that. The fact that the picks turned out the way they did doesn’t refute the fact that a 1st round pick is better than a 2nd round pick. It is a bit disingenuous on the writer’s part, but the point remains the same no matter how you try to spin it.
Don’t be a snowflake, Bergs. It’s strange to see you stamp your little feet and pout because you think you found a ‘gotcha’ moment and it didn’t work out for you. You ARE Spitty . . . and you ain’t no GM.
I guess you missed the sentence where I said “You’re correct that they gave up a better pick with the Browns regardless”. To say they passed on a 4th overall pick is flat out fake news and needs to be put in context. Why? Because the author is trying to paint the story that Billacheat hates Cleveland. Coaches get fired all the time I don’t believe that angle for a heart beat.
Here is what happened IMO. Garoppolo is good, really good. I think we’ve seen and established that. Billacheat did not want him in the AFC, period. He just didn’t want to face him every year. Couple that with the absolute fact that Bilacheat is friends with Lynch and Shannahan and that is what happened. This Bill hates Cleveland angle needed a lot of embellishment to sell it to whoever wanted to believe it. I pointed it out to you folks so you wouldn’t believe the foolishness. Now that we’ve had this debate people on this site can decide for themselves with better perspective. If you want to believe that Bill didn’t take the higher pick because he hates Cleveland, go ahead. I think I’ve spent enough time here explaining my point.
A Snowflake calling me a Snowflake is precious. I am guessing you don’t like the actual meaning of the word and are trying to defuse it. A nice Freudian ploy!
There was probably several factors that led to Belichick not dealing with the Browns, all of which have been mentioned above. Belichick wanting to deal with the Shanahans was probably one of them, as mentioned in the ESPN story. I think he also likes JG and didn’t want to hose him by sending him to Cleveland. He has a positive history with Mike Shanahan and like Kyle’s coaching style.
Whatever. Bad for Cleveland, good for us. Now sign the guy!
Any significance with 1982? The 49ers being about 2 weeks away from playing and winning their first Super Bowl? I can tell you where I was, about 5 months into my military service and stationed at Fort Eustis, VA, where it was colder than a witch’s tit. But that was nothing compared to Pontiac, Michigan!
Man, this would’ve been 3 days after the epic NFC Championship game. It took me that long to recover from that nail biter. What an amazing, up-and-down affair that was. Montana with 3 picks, Niners with 6 turnovers. Do that in just about any other playoff game in league history and you lose. I’m not a destiny kind of guy, but it sure seemed they were preordained to go all the way that year. So many magical moments, so many old scores settled. Finally beating the fucking Cowboys and getting that monkey off their backs. The only win as sweet as that in my life was the Giants nailing down the 2010 World Series. God I hated Dallas.
I miss the NFL of those days. It was still so raw and fun.
I had flown home to Goleta for leave and watched the 49ers beat the Giants, 38-24, in the divisional game. I don’t think I believed at any point that they’d win it all until they actually did. So improbable.
I feel exactly the same about the 2010 World Series. I thought would’t see it in my lifetime. Pure joy.
Nice story!
WTH, if you have two hours to blow, spend it reliving history:
Looking back is nice but it’s done and finished. Sign Jimmy G. to a long term deal. That’s all that matters now. We all know this must be done. BLEEP!
The sooner the better!
new thread is up.