A day after Jimmy Garoppolo went to the 49ers in a surprise trade, the Browns tried to save some face. Per usual, they ended up falling on theirs.
A trade involving Bengals backup quarterback A.J. McCarron, first reported by ESPN's Adam Schefter, was agreed upon by both the Bengals and Browns just ahead of the 4 p.m. trade deadline Tuesday. But the Bengals submitted the paperwork to the NFL office, and Schefter reported that the Browns didn't submit theirs in time.
That's staggering incompetence, even by the Browns' standards. But it gets worse. The Browns appealed to the NFL, asking for the trade to be allowed.