Former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum pulled off a number of quarterback trades during his time as an executive. But he just suggested one trade that no one in their right minds would do.
On Friday’s edition of Get Up, Tannenbaum – now an ESPN analyst – suggested that the Cleveland Browns trade quarterback Deshaun Watson and a second-round pick to the New York Giants in exchange for quarterback Daniel Jones. His reasoning was that the Giants need a difference-maker at quarterback while the Browns would want to shed Watson’s salary and get more flexibility.
“I’m trading Deshaun Watson and a second round pick to the New York Giants for Daniel Jones. And hear me out: If you’re the Cleveland Browns, you have Dorian Thompson-Robinson, you have Joe Flacco and now a 27-year-old Daniel Jones who has one year left of guaranteed money for $36 million and an enormous amount of flexibility. If you’re the Giants, you’re getting Deshaun Watson, who is 29, who is making $46 million a year for the next three years and a second round pick. To me, you need a front line difference-making quarterback… If you’re the Giants, how do you win the NFC against the San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay, Dallas, Philly and Detroit with Daniel Jones?” Tannenbaum said.
“Who says no?” he finished.
The answer is pretty much everybody.
As much as he’d like to convince himself that either the Browns or the Giants would be interested in the other’s quarterback, the Browns have invested too much into Watson and the Giants have too little cap space as it is for either one of them to make such a deal work.
Ideas like this are probably why Tannenbaum is an analyst.