FACTORS - Botched McCarron Trade Shows Disunity Within Browns Organization

     As one of Nick Saban's National Championship winning quarterbacks, AJ McCarron is no stranger to drama. A fifth round pick in 2014, he was taken by the Cincinnati Bengals to backup their starter Andy Dalton. Many projected that McCarron would never succeed in the NFL, and benefited from having a great team while playing at Alabama.

     Since that time, McCarron has silenced his critics with solid performances while playing for an injured Dalton. Playing five games in 2015, McCarron made himself known with a 66.4% completion percentage, and a passer rating of 97.1 and one of the best backups (a potential starter) in the NFL.

     The Offensive Coordinator for Cincinnati in 2015? Who was that? Current Cleveland Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson.

     Now that McCarron enters his fourth year in the NFL, McCarron enters the last year of his rookie contract. The Cleveland Browns, who have had major quarterback issues that have been well documented since they re-entered the league in 1999, attempted to trade for McCarron shortly before the Trade Deadline, but botched the attempt by simply not informing NFL League Offices of the trade before the 4 PM ET deadline.

     ESPN reported that Cleveland and Cincinnati were on the phone around 3:10 PM ET trying to convince the Bengals to lower the price on McCarron's 2nd and 3rd round picks price tag. Bengals General Manager Mike Brown told the Browns to call him back after thinking the deal over, but the Browns General Manager, Sashi Brown, didn't call back until 45 minutes later saying that they would accept the trade.

     All that needs to be done to start an NFL trade is notify the league office. Once both teams notify the league with the trade and what it contains, the NFL confirms the trade if the teams descriptions match. After that, the paperwork for the trade has 15 days to be completed. So all the Browns had to do was email the league office, just like the Bengals did, to report the trade, and they didn't do it. What happened?

     There is some disunity within the Browns organization between the front office and the coaching staff yet again. The time that elapsed between the two phone calls that were spoken of above indicate that. It appears that Sashi Brown and Hue Jackson are bumping heads, and the Browns ownership are a raging fire yet again.

     So the real question that remains is why would the Browns coaching staff have a problem with dealing for this quarterback? They've coached this guy already, he knows the system better then any other quarterback they could add.

FACTOR ONE - The Price Tag

     The price tag was high. Mike Brown knows better then to give deals to divisional rivals. The AFC North is already hard enough with the Pittsburgh Steelers, a very well run organization, and the Baltimore Ravens playing every year. If you are to give a player to another team within your division, it means that you will be seeing him twice a year. Two games is enough to knock someone out of the playoff hunt. So if a potential star player is dealt to a team in the division, you want to make sure you can respond.

FACTOR TWO - Display of Confidence
      As a head coach in the NFL, you want to show confidence in what you are doing on your own. Jackson has drafted Cody Kessler in the third round of 2016 and DeShone Kizer in the second of 2017. They added Kevin Hogan from Stanford as an undrafted rookie free agent. To trade a second and third round pick for yet another quarterback would be a sign that Jackson has already lost faith in all three of his hand-picked quarterbacks.

FACTOR THREE - No Guarantee 
     Thirdly, there is no way to guarantee that McCarron is the future of the Browns organization. To invest that heavily in a quarterback and then to see him flat out fail would be yet another waste in the Browns hunt for their quarterback. Jackson has been all about stockpiling young talent while he has been at Cleveland, and those are valuable picks for next season.

     For Browns fans, its this lack of team spirit, team unity, the fights between the front office and the coaching staff, the fights between the coaching staff and the players, the fights between the front office and the players, and the distractions (Johnny Manziel, Josh Gordon on weed, etc) that drive them absolutely bonkers and make them pull their hair out. The Browns has been a mess of an organization since they returned, and they show no signs of letting up.

     They let a good player slip away from them on Tuesday. It's not the first time, and it certainly won't be the last. If the Browns don't start winning some games here soon, Jackson isn't going to be coaching this team for much longer, and the Browns are going to be falling down the drain yet again.