All eyes have been on the Cleveland Browns this offseason for all the wrong reasons. They took a bit of that spotlight away last week by trading Baker Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers, but the Deshaun Watson situation still overshadows everything else.
Watson is awaiting potential discipline for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy. With Watson’s status in doubt, some are speculating that the Browns could turn to another outcast quarterback: Jimmy Garoppolo of the San Francisco 49ers.
92.3 The Fan’s Browns beat reporter Daryl Ruiter discussed the speculation with Andy Baskin on Monday's episode of Audacy’s It’s Always Gameday In Cleveland podcast.
“It’s interesting how speculation turns into rumors,” Ruiter said (3:30 in player above).
“Would I like Jimmy G here as a Plan B? Absolutely, I would love it,” Baskin said. “What does San Francisco want that we have to make that happen?”
“It’s not happening,” Ruiter replied. “It’s why I don’t like talking about it a lot because it’s just not happening.”
After some back and forth, Ruiter came up with a possible deal.
“I think they’d take the two. They’d take the second-round pick,” Ruiter said. “I think so.”
“If the scenario is that Deshaun Watson is not available to you for the entire year, yeah I would do it,” Ruiter said regarding giving up the second-round pick for Garoppolo. “But first of all, I think that Deshaun is going to be available this year at some point, number one. And number two, I just don’t see a Jimmy G trade happening for the Cleveland Browns.”
Ruiter has been steadfast in his belief that Watson will play at some point this season. Even if Watson receives a lengthy suspension, the Browns brought in Jacoby Brissett as a backup option.
“Going into the Deshaun situation, they had made some behind the scenes provisions that if he is suspended what they’re going to do. And that’s why they brough Jacoby Brissett in, to be their backup quarterback.
“Their Plan B was very, very clear that it was going to be Jacoby Brissett. They didn’t bring in Jacoby Brissett just to kinda carry a clipboard.”
Nevertheless, it’ll be interesting to see what the Browns do at quarterback depending on the outcome of the Watson hearing.
