Browns trade for Tyrod Taylor

[Broncofan]

Just now, LeeEvans said:

He was the first QB in 17 years because he had a team around him. It's we were able to get to the playoffs despite average at best displays from the QB position. I'm not sure if our wins our losses from this season best describe Tyrod as a QB. He threw for 80 something yards against he Saints on 18 attempts in a blowout loss, that is awful any way you cut it. I don't know how you do that in today's NFL to be quite honest. We also beat the Falcons this season, our kicker made three 50+ yd field goals and won AFC ST player of the week and our defense forced three turnovers and we barely scraped by with a win. The rest of our team had to have their best game of the season to get us a win because our offense was anemic. 

Tyrod has had some good games in his career but a passer with one career 300+ yard game (in OT) is not someone you base the future of your franchise on. Tyrod should always be respected in Buffalo but he's not going to get us anywhere further than a first round playoff appearance and that's on the back of a run game and defense more than his arm. 

Can teams do worse than Tyrod? Absolutely. Can they do better? Yes. Do you need better to make a legitimate playoff challenge? Yes again. 

It's totally why BUF felt they had to move on.  Most everyone gets that.   Now that you've made the playoffs - you want more.   And Taylor won't get you there, then better to move on while you can get value.   

That same argument is why ppl are saying CLE overpaid.   If the argument is that changing the culture and mindset requires CLE to overpay for a bridge QB as a loss leader to bring future success - then no argument for me, I can get behind the thinking.  But it's still an overpay.   

[AkronsWitness]

11 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

Again, though - if Taylor was being brought in as a guy they really believed in not just as a stopgap, then it makes total sense.   But even your beat reporters acknowledge he's being brought in as a bridge.  Just a temp guy.   The 65 pick is a big price for a 1-year rental, if the result is likely more W's, but still a non-playoff team.   I get that point completely, I'm 100 percent in agreement there.   

Cabot and the CLE radio guys confirm the bridge angle - http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2018/03/browns_take_nfl_world_by_storm.html

And again, its the price you have to pay to bring productive veteran leadership and stability to not only the position but also the QB room with a soon to be #1 overall pick.

The Browns dug this hole. They have to pay a little extra to get out of it and back to stability. 

Im looking forward to the Browns scoring a TD and its not a complete and total surprise. If that costs a 3rd round pick who is usually spent on a 1-2 year project guy who you hope can be a starter then so be it, then so be it. Also, nobody knows if the Browns wont resign Tyrod after this season even if they spend a #1 pick on a QB.

[LeeEvans]

3 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

It's totally why BUF felt they had to move on.  Most everyone gets that.   Now that you've made the playoffs - you want more.   And Taylor won't get you there, then better to move on while you can get value.   

That same argument is why ppl are saying CLE overpaid.   If the argument is that changing the culture and mindset requires CLE to overpay for a bridge QB as a loss leader to bring future success - then no argument for me, I can get behind the thinking.  But it's still an overpay.   

Pretty much the same for me. I get both sides. If you want a bridge type guy you honestly can't beat Tyrod. He's the ultimate professional and he'll win you some games. He also delivers those moments of magics that make it fun to be a fan again. We had a game against the Titans a couple of years ago without our top two receives and without Shady and he basically won that game on his own with his legs and it was one of the single most impressive displays I've seen. Tyrod isn't perfect but he's a fighter and guys will play for him in no time. 

[Xmad]

23 minutes ago, PapaShogun said:

So the Bills should be content with mediocrity from the QB position? That franchise is going nowhere with Tyrod, and neither will the Browns. 

So the Bills should just hit the reset button at QB and pray they'll finally get lucky? You should settle for mediocrity if you don't have an alternative. Drafting a franchise QB isn't easy and I don't have a ton of confidence in this current regime to finally fix that. One more off-season with two 1st rounders and fidning a good OC who can work with Tyrod would've probably have been the difference that got them over the hump. Instead the bills will sign some veteran QB placeholder in FA (Bradford/Keenum/insert QB here) and try and trade up for a QB/ wait for one to fall to them and waste all of the progress they've made.

4 minutes ago, LeeEvans said:

He was the first QB in 17 years because he had a team around him. It's we were able to get to the playoffs despite average at best displays from the QB position. I'm not sure if our wins our losses from this season best describe Tyrod as a QB. He threw for 80 something yards against he Saints on 18 attempts in a blowout loss, that is awful any way you cut it. I don't know how you do that in today's NFL to be quite honest. We also beat the Falcons this season, our kicker made three 50+ yd field goals and won AFC ST player of the week and our defense forced three turnovers and we barely scraped by with a win. The rest of our team had to have their best game of the season to get us a win because our offense was anemic. 

Tyrod has had some good games in his career but a passer with one career 300+ yard game (in OT) is not someone you base the future of your franchise on. Tyrod should always be respected in Buffalo but he's not going to get us anywhere further than a first round playoff appearance and that's on the back of a run game and defense more than his arm. 

Can teams do worse than Tyrod? Absolutely. Can they do better? Yes. Do you need better to make a legitimate playoff challenge? Yes again. 

I'd say no considering we just saw Blake Bortles, Nick Foles, Case Keenum all make title game appearances and a backup QB win the SB (Granted Nick Foles played extremely well but still he was a backup QB with a damn good team around him) whose to say you couldn't win a SB with Tyrod if you continued to build the roster and ya know....Get some actual weapons on offense. 

[Soko]

9 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

Again, though - if Taylor was being brought in as a guy they really believed in not just as a stopgap, then it makes total sense.   But even your beat reporters acknowledge he's being brought in as a bridge.  Just a temp guy.   The 65 pick is a big price for a 1-year rental, if the result is likely more W's, but still a non-playoff team.   I get that point completely, I'm 100 percent in agreement there.   

Cabot and the CLE radio guys confirm the bridge angle - http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2018/03/browns_take_nfl_world_by_storm.html

The problem is that they’re going to overpay for a bridge QB either way. None of the QBs that could conceivably start on solid contracts will want to come to Cleveland - a place that is known to destroy quarterbacks, has a HC who very well could be looking at his last season, will likely be drafting a QB high to push the player in discussion. Really all they can offer them is a lot more money than most other teams, but again, that’s an overpay. 

They have 5 picks in the first couple rounds even after this trade. Now they afforded themselves a little more flexibility with those picks. They couldn’t afford to bank on a vet coming in.

[LeeEvans]

6 minutes ago, AkronsWitness said:

And again, its the price you have to pay to bring productive veteran leadership and stability to not only the position but also the QB room with a soon to be #1 overall pick.

The Browns dug this hole. They have to pay a little extra to get out of it and back to stability. 

Im looking forward to the Browns scoring a TD and its not a complete and total surprise. If that costs a 3rd round pick who is usually spent on a 1-2 year project guy who you hope can be a starter, then so be it.

Hard to argue with. You've got the ammo to spend. Tyrod will be a professional and is the type of guy that players will want to play for an will learn how to act from. I can't think of a better guy to get a team in shape to transition to a franchise guy than Tyrod. He's a great player, a great teammate and a good leader. The Browns have a good guy who unfortunately is an average QB and, at this stage, I think that's a step in the right direction. It's something the Bills needed two seasons ago and I think the Browns can use the same blueprint. 

[Broncofan]

7 minutes ago, AkronsWitness said:

And again, its the price you have to pay to bring productive veteran leadership and stability to not only the position but also the QB room with a soon to be #1 overall pick.

The Browns dug this hole. They have to pay a little extra to get out of it and back to stability.

That's entirely fair to say CLE has to pay it - it's just not that hard to say it's an overpay.   A bigger Q is if Dorsey's willingness to overpay is just because of the understanding of CLE's need to dig themselves out of this hole...or if he's just a guy who is completely tone-deaf to cap health and assigning proper pick value.   This is not because of today alone - it's because it's his major flaw from his KC days.  

I thought the Randall trade was terrific given they had no use for Kizer and he had so few suitors, and I imagine the same thinking was there with Landry (and a 4.1 plus 2019 7th isn't quite the overpay with MIA in a cap barrel as initially reported).   And I like his KC draft record.  And of course, Sashi Brown's work gives him some leeway (well, actually a lot this year).  But that pick leeway ends after this year, and he's rapidly going to use the $ - so his future MO is going to have to be a lot better value-wise.   But, he has the room to maneuver (thanks to Brown).   I'm rooting for them, no org deserves to fail for this long.   We'll see.

[LeeEvans]

1 minute ago, OleXmad said:

So the Bills should just hit the reset button at QB and pray they'll finally get lucky? You should settle for mediocrity if you don't have an alternative. Drafting a franchise QB isn't easy and I don't have a ton of confidence in this current regime to finally fix that. One more off-season with two 1st rounders and fidning a good OC who can work with Tyrod would've probably have been the difference that got them over the hump. Instead the bills will sign some veteran QB placeholder in FA (Bradford/Keenum/insert QB here) and try and trade up for a QB/ wait for one to fall to them and waste all of the progress they've made.

I'd say no considering we just saw Blake Bortles, Nick Foles, Case Keenum all make title game appearances and a backup QB win the SB (Granted Nick Foles played extremely well but still he was a backup QB with a damn good team around him) whose to say you couldn't win a SB with Tyrod if you continued to build the roster and ya know....Get some actual weapons on offense. 

Ah yes. The old "get some weapons on offense" rhetoric. He had Charles Clay, Marquise Goodwin, Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods and Lesean McCoy on his team during the same season. You take that crew now during this offseason and Watkins and Woods are damn near $10m a year receivers, Goodwin just got paid, Clay is a great TE and Shady is still a boss. The guy has had weapons, less so this season but he's still had them. 

I'd say this season was an outlier in terms of QB talent, last season had Brady, Ryan, Rodgers and Roethlisburger. Tyrod can't win you games when you need him to, something you need your QB to do in the playoffs and in big games that matter. 

[Thomas5737]

As a Browns fan I think it was an overpay because it seemed pretty clear Taylor had no future with the Bills and would eventually be released if he wasn't traded.

That said even if he only plays decent for 8 games he will probably still sign a high end backup QB contract and the Browns could possibly recoup some of that value with a comp pick.

With Landry and Taylor I can only guess that the offensive scheme is going to be completely different from last year unless, well, the Browns are idiots.

[lancerman]

31 minutes ago, AkronsWitness said:

Tyrod Taylor just had 3 seasons where he averaged a QB RTG of 93. 93!!!!!!!! lol Tyrod Taylors last 3 seasons are better than anything the Browns have had in over a decade and people are saying they overpaid with a 3rd round pick?

Here is a list of QBRs of recent Browns QBs

Kizer- 60

RG3- 72

Manziel- 74

Campbell- 76

Hoyer- 78

Weeden- 70

McCoy- 74

Wallace- 73

Delhomme- 63

Quinn- 64

 

Taylor has horrible stats when he’s ever put in a position to outright win games. He’s somebody that won’t make mistakes (until he has to try to win) and if you have a solid team around him (Browns don’t) you can maybe be slightly above average. He’s not a good a QB, the Browns grossly over paid. If he’s truly a bridge QB he didn’t deserve anything, the QB market was going to be huge this year. If the Browns think he’s anything more than that, then prepare for a minimum of 4 years of mediocrity 

[lancerman]

It’s kind of funny how after years of hearing about the Browns stocking draft picks and being experts they are just pissing picks away. You might as well have burned that pick you spent for Taylor, and Landry is overrated too. 

[Broncofan]

5 minutes ago, Thomas5737 said:

As a Browns fan I think it was an overpay because it seemed pretty clear Taylor had no future with the Bills and would eventually be released if he wasn't traded.

That said even if he only plays decent for 8 games he will probably still sign a high end backup QB contract and the Browns could possibly recoup some of that value with a comp pick.

With Landry and Taylor I can only guess that the offensive scheme is going to be completely different from last year unless, well, the Browns are idiots.

For my position that the Browns overpaid significantly to get Taylor, let me be the first to say one key way that the Browns should be different on O while Taylor's the QB - they shouldn't turn the ball over 10x inside the opponent's 5 yard line like Kizer did IIRC.  One thing Taylor does very well is protect the ball.   

[lancerman]

1 minute ago, Thomas5737 said:

As a Browns fan I think it was an overpay because it seemed pretty clear Taylor had no future with the Bills and would eventually be released if he wasn't traded.

That said even if he only plays decent for 8 games he will probably still sign a high end backup QB contract and the Browns could possibly recoup some of that value with a comp pick.

With Landry and Taylor I can only guess that the offensive scheme is going to be completely different from last year unless, well, the Browns are idiots.

Nobody is paying him top dollar

[Jakuvious]

Call me crazy, but I really don't mind this move. It seems more or less like exactly what Dorsey did to start his tenure in KC. With many of the same criticisms (I think Smith may have had 2 or 3 300 yard games, not 1, but more starts, so it washes out a bit, and Smith was always horrible in late game situations), and actually with higher compensation. They can still draft a QBOTF with one of the top picks if they want. And they have so many picks they're really not going to miss the one they forked over for this much. But I think it could catch people off guard, how much adding Taylor could stabilize that team in the interim. Having a QB that just doesn't shoot you in the foot at every turn really can help the team just get to a point where they can actually start changing the culture a little bit, evaluating the players around the QB position on the offense, and just stop being a laughing stock. When we got Alex our team suddenly seemed like they had all this talent just because one guy wasn't sinking the ship.

[Broncofan]

Just now, Jakuvious said:

Call me crazy, but I really don't mind this move. It seems more or less like exactly what Dorsey did to start his tenure in KC. With many of the same criticisms (I think Smith may have had 2 or 3 300 yard games, not 1, but more starts, so it washes out a bit, and Smith was always horrible in late game situations), and actually with higher compensation. They can still draft a QBOTF with one of the top picks if they want. And they have so many picks they're really not going to miss the one they forked over for this much. But I think it could catch people off guard, how much adding Taylor could stabilize that team in the interim. Having a QB that just doesn't shoot you in the foot at every turn really can help the team just get to a point where they can actually start changing the culture a little bit, evaluating the players around the QB position on the offense, and just stop being a laughing stock.

The difference is that for better or worse, Smith was their QBOTF.   Taylor's their bridge, acknowledged by the org's own beat writers.