This is what confuses me - which appears to be exactly the same as the Browns thinking. You are fine with giving up a first round pick at #12, but there's no way you would give up #1. Why can't you flip it and say, take Garopollo in a trade for the first pick and then take a flyer on the next best defensive end at #12? In either situation, you are choosing to take a better prospect at one position for a lesser prospect at another position. Wouldn't you rather have your preferred quarterback than your preferred defensive end?
And the idea that "hell no" because Garopollo has played 2 games and has 1 year left on his rookie deal...I don't get it...you also said you would trade the #12 overall pick for him, and so have the Browns. So he is a valuable quarterback who is such a great prospect he is worth a high first round pick, but trading 11 slots above that and the GM should be fired? As someone else alluded to before, I think public relations and a fear of failure is dictating this reluctance more than logic because the deal's upside far exceeds any other deal that may come along for the Browns for a long, long time.
I think what the Patriots are asking for is perfectly fair. Garopollo is the best available quarterback and has the highest ceiling of any attainable quarterback prospect right now, and the Browns clearly think he is their long-term answer. Sometimes many years go by where a team cannot find itself in the fortunate situation of having the draft capital to get what they view as a potentially elite quarterback, and there are no other big bidders right now. Quarterback is just a different position altogether, and its value can be the difference between 6-8 wins per season. Any other position, I'm not even sure if a team wins two more games with an elite player. We keep coming back to JJ Watt as a great example. Does anyone believe the Texans make it any further, or even have a better record last year, if Watt were healthy? Arguably not...maybe one game better...definitely not close to contending against the Patriots. That is Miles Garrett's ceiling right there.