Written by John Breech at CBS Sports.com
Just when you think the Browns’ front office has reached rock bottom, they get out a shovel and show you that they can actually go much lower.
The Browns attempted to pull off a trade for Bengals backup quarterback AJ McCarron just minutes before the NFL’s trade deadline on Tuesday, but the deal didn’t go down because the Browns messed everything up, which seems to be a weekly thing in Cleveland.
We won’t rehash the details of how the Browns botched the trade — because Will Brinson did a great job of that here — but we will give you the incredulous reaction from the Bengals’ side of the deal.
Basically, even Marvin Lewis was surprised by the Browns’ ineptitude.
Marv on trade: never heard of a trade getting derailed by lack of paperwork
— Geoff Hobson (@GeoffHobsonCin) November 1, 2017
“It’s not a good situation,” Lewis said of the trade.
Although the trade fell through, Lewis was actually relieved because the Bengals coach likes having a quality backup behind Andy Dalton.
“AJ is a very valuable member of this team,” Lewis said, via ESPN.com. “I told him as such [on Tuesday]. Frankly, I was relieved so I don’t have to go through those gymnastics of the next step. He’s a great kid. He’s a true team player. He’s a leader. He’s a leader on this football team, and that’s why we felt like he is such a valuable asset. [Bengals owner Mike Brown] was very clear about that about how we felt about him.”
On McCarron’s end, he was already mentally packing his bags for Cleveland because he had been told that the trade was official.
“My agent thought it was a done deal, “McCarron said. “All I know is what I was told and paperwork got turned in a little too late and that’s why I didn’t go to them.”
Despite the fact that McCarron will miss out on what likely would have been a chance to become the Browns’ starting quarterback, he said he’s not bitter about how everything played out.
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