NFL Rumors: Browns, Cardinals, Patriots

Browns

Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Browns HC Hue Jackson “pushed hard” to acquire either Jimmy Garoppolo or A.J. McCarron during the offseason.

Multiple sources tell Cabot that Jackson “fell hard” for Garoppolo during the offseason and made him his primary target. However, it likely would have required the Browns to part with a first-round pick to get Garoppolo during the offseason and possibly more.

A source tells Cabot that “it’s highly doubtful’‘ the Browns made a run at Garoppolo before he was traded to the 49ers on Monday.

Cabot says that after it became clear that the Browns weren’t going to get Garoppolo, Jackson turned his attention to McCarron, as he worked with him while they were in Cincinnati. Sources tell Cabot that McCarron might’ve been had for a couple of second-round picks, but it’s unclear whether they tried to trade for him during the draft.

Cardinals

Cardinals GM Steve Keim said the team has been “active” in trade talks leading up to today’s deadline. However, Keim added that there multiple moving parts required to put together a deal.

“There have to be so many things that have to make sense,” Keim said during an appearance on the “Doug and Wolf” show on Arizona Sports 98.7, via AzCardinals.com. “We’ll continue to work the phones.”

• Keim was also noncommittal about RB David Johnson (wrist) returning from injured reserve this year: “We will continue to monitor that to see if he can come back this season.”
• As for QB Carson Palmer, Keim there were a lot of “moving parts” for his potential return as well.

Patriots

Patriots HC Bill Belichick had nothing but good things to say about QB Jimmy Garoppolo during a conference call Tuesday morning.

“First of all, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jimmy,” Belichick said, via Zack Cox of NESN.com. “I couldn’t ask for him to give us any more than he’s given us.”

Belichick said he thought they had “the best quarterback situation in the league for the last two-and-a-half years” before they agreed to trade Garoppolo to the 49ers on Monday.

“The 49ers are getting a good player, they’re getting a good person, and they’re getting a great teammate, and they’re getting a good quarterback,” Belichick said. “And Jimmy’s getting a good coach. His career is moving forward. He’s a talented individual. He was a great person to coach. I met with him weekly, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. But as his career moves forward, we have to look at our team, both this year and beyond, and that’s a consideration we had to make.”

However, Belichick explained that retaining Garoppolo was “just not sustainable” them moving forward.

“It’s definitely not something that we wanted to walk away from,” Belichick said. “I thought we rode it out as long as we could.”