At some point, the idea gets twisted. After watching Tom Brady turbo-boost the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Matthew Stafford actualize the almost-there Los Angeles Rams, there became this market over-correction with devastating consequences. The Cleveland Browns joined forces with Deshaun Watson and cemented the worst (and, not for nothing, the most morally repugnant) trade in NFL history. The Denver Broncos sold out for Russell Wilson which, not for nothing, was maybe the funniest trade in NFL history. Those teams are either currently eating—or preparing to find a way not to digest—some of the largest sums of dead money ever conceived. It’s going to take a long time to clean out the detritus both literal and emotional.
The Browns and Broncos have come to realize that these moves don’t work unless everything else is already aligned and the due diligence on the player is perfect. Personnel. Processes. Coaching. Disaster management. Quarterbacks are critical and essential but they are rarely mystics capable of transforming an entire building into what it is not, or what it has never been.
