Browns Reportedly ‘Never’ Offered First-Round Pick For Jimmy Garoppolo

Since former New England Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was traded to the San Francisco 49ers, one of the biggest question marks was the return the Patriots received.

A report Monday claimed the Cleveland Browns were willing to give up the Houston Texans’ 2018 first round pick — which ended up being fourth overall — and “other goodies” just days before the quarterback was sent to the Bay Area. If that was true, then the second-round pick the Patriots received instead seems marginal in comparison.

Turns out, however, that offer actually might never have existed.

NFL Insider Ian Rapoport squashed the rumor on WEEI’s Kirk & Callahan on Friday.

“Would the Browns have given up the fourth pick? It’s very easy of Browns people — (Then-GM Sashi Brown) I assume — to say now,” Rapoport said. “I never heard that was on the table before. When the Browns made an offer in the draft it was for a second-rounder and a third-rounder. So, if they were going to trade a one, that would have been the time to do it.

“I don’t really buy the hindsight there,” Rapoport continued. “It’s easy to say, ‘Yeah, we would have offered this.’ Well, you had the chance to and you didn’t, so that isn’t really fair to say.”

Brown was canned in December after putting a product on the field in Cleveland that went 1-27 under his watch as GM. And given Browns head coach Hue Jackson reportedly wanted the Brown to go out and get either Garoppolo or Cincinnati Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron, it makes some sense for the ousted executive to claim the Patriots hosed him as a way of retroactively saving face.