I would still do the trade for #12, #52, and a fourth next year. Better than losing Garoppolo in FA or spending 40M in cap space on QBs until Brady is done IMO.
I would have agreed with this before Brock Osweiler helped the Broncos win the Super Bowl. Now I'm not so sure.
If Jacoby could keep us a float a few weeks during a non-season-ending injury for Brady, sure. But if we're not so sure about that (and this year's schedule looks much tougher than last year's), then I'd rather hold onto him and go for ring #6 rather than pick #12, #52, and next year's 4th.
Who are you drafting at 12 and 52 that could help the team more? Give me a name here. I see a few cornerbacks projected in that range, but if we keep Butler, does a #3/#4 corner have more value? Could potentially go RB, but do we need to? The #1 pick overall is the chance to add an edge monster for 5 years, I get that. But #12 is just a number until you put a name to it. The value of the draft doesn't seem to mesh with what we could use. You're basically hoping to trade down in a deep draft where it might not be so easy to do, or you're reaching for a DE.
Part of me wonders if BB is planning on keeping Jimmy G under a franchise tag. It seems insane, and yet, he has done so many things I never predicted. And maybe he thinks that it will be really hard to get another QB. The Cleveland fans (and many fans) assume that you can just draft a guy in the first round and it will all be great.
If you look at the past 10 drafts from 2006 to 2015 (excluding 2016 because it's too early), 26 QBs have been drafted in the 1st round. Only one has won a Super Bowl, Joe Flacco. 2 more have made it to a Super Bowl (Matt Ryan, Cam Newton). There are some other good QBs in that mix, but apart from Luck and the previously-mentioned guys, nobody who is hands-down better than Jimmy G in that mix. Out of those 26, maybe Ryan will make the HOF if he has some huge years. There are no locks though.
And if you look at the successors of great QBs, it's rarely Favre to Rodgers, Montana to Young. And it's important to note while all of those guys are HOFers, Rodgers and Young never made it to more than 1 Super Bowl, so even then you can't expect anything close to what we're living through now.
Then you look at the Bills. From Kelly to...Todd Collins?!? Flutie, Rob Johnson (including 1st names for some of these guys cuz nobody knows who the hell they are), Alex Van Pelt, Bledsoe, Kelly Holcomb, JP Losman, Trent Edwards, Ryan Fitzpatrick, EJ Manuel, and now Tyrod Taylor, and over 2 decades have passed yet they still haven't found anyone half as good as Kelly.
Great QBs are hard to find. There are only 26 HOF QBs from the modern era, with a few more currently playing. So if you think Jimmy G is going to be a great one, you should do anything and everything to keep him or acquire him. If you think he's only good, fine, I understand not wanting to break the bank. But if you go through your tape and study him and honestly believe he will be great, there's no excuse not to do everything you can to get him, because great QBs are hard to find.
That's something that Browns fans don't really get. They think they'll be able to find one with a ton of draft picks. They're not always available. And it's something Patriots fans are easy to dismiss because we've been so spoiled the past few decades. Even Bledsoe at his worst here was more than Browns fans could have dreamed of. Brian Sipes is their career leader in passing, Bernie Kosar was their hero. And they are going to **** on Jimmy G? Give me a ****ing break.
