Buried deep in a first-person recounting of the Buffalo Bills and that team’s ongoing quarterback travails, the Cleveland Browns also catch some flak for their own internal QB decision-making processes.
Tim Graham of The Athletic reported an interview with ex-Bills GM Buddy Nix and former Buffalo QB coach David Lee that broke down several bad decisions made on the QB front in western New York. It gets interesting for the Browns when Lee moves to Cleveland in 2017 as the team’s QB coach under then-head coach Hue Jackson.
Lee goes on the record to blame then-GM Sashi Brown as the reason why the Browns did not land either Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson with their second first-round selection in that draft. After acknowledging that everyone was in lock-step on drafting Myles Garrett No. 1 overall, Lee has this to say about the QB decision in that vaunted 2017 draft,
“Hue and I were in total agreement,” Lee said. “We loved Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, and we would have been thrilled to death with either.”
Why didn’t the Browns pull the trigger?
“Sashi wanted (Mitchell) Trubisky and to accumulate picks rather than see the player that was right in front of him. When we made that trade with Houston for the 12th pick,” Lee sighed, “I just said, ‘Where am I?’ ”
Talk of Brown preferring Trubisky to Mahomes and Watson dates back to that draft. Lee’s on-the-record citation is the first confirmation from someone inside the organization of that assertion.
Trubisky wound up being the No. 2 overall selection after the Chicago Bears traded up one spot to land the North Carolina QB. The Browns traded the No. 12 overall pick to Houston so the Texans could select Watson, a 2-time Pro Bowler and one of the game’s brightest young stars. The Browns landed Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer in the second round. After leading Cleveland to a winless 2017, he’s now out of the league.
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