Why the Denver Broncos Trading for Brady Quinn is a Bad Idea

There have been so many offseason moves involving the Cleveland Browns this offseason.  With the quarterback carousel, adding Scott Fujita and a flurry of other moves, one stands out, the recent trade involving Brady Quinn.

Brady Quinn was recently traded to Denver for fullback Payton Hillis and a late 2011 and 2012 pick.  While that deal worked out well for the Browns, it was Denver who got the short end of the stick on this one.  Brady Quinn was the worst decisions made by the Browns (and they have made a lot of them) when they drafted him. 

Sure, coming out of college, he was looking good.  He had a pretty good college career, and had a pretty good combine.  He even was faster than the bust JaMarcus Russell, which was surprising because Russell was a known as a “mobile quarterback.”

However, when he was taken by the Browns late in the first round (many thought they’d take him earlier with pick No. 3; they decided to take Joe Thomas), he started to under perform.

One of the reasons that Denver got the short end of the stick is that they really didn’t get anything for what they gave.  They only get Quinn, where they are giving up two draft picks, and a top level fullback in Payton Hillis. 

Hillis had a great year for a fullback in 2008, scoring five touchdowns and getting a good share of the carries.  He had a less than stellar year in 2009, but that does not mean that he could have been of value to the team.  But the Broncos decided to ship him off to Cleveland just to get an unproven quarterback. 

Also, Denver gives up two late round picks, one next year and one in 2012.  While it doesn’t sound like a big deal now, there’s no telling what kind of players will be available then. 

Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and Terrell Davis were all late round picks, and they turned out to be amazing players. 

Draft picks are not something that should just be shopped around, but everybody seems to do it these days. 

In addition, he doesn’t even have a lock on the starting job.  He has to compete with Kyle Orton and any maybe even a draftee for the starting job.  He’s done that once before in Cleveland, and we all know how that turned out.

However, the one thing they do get is Brady Quinn.  Quinn is an unproven quarterback in the NFL simply because he has never had enough playing time.  He spends most of the time holding a clipboard on the sidelines, and when he does get into the game, he just doesn’t have the same tools that he showed in college.  He doesn’t have a very good deep pass and he never really had the receiving core to be a productive wide receiver.

Who knows, maybe Quinn will go on and beat out everybody for the starting position.  With him at the helm, maybe he can show us what he is worth. 

Hopefully it will be worth more than Payton Hillis and two late round draft picks.