Red Right 88

Well … time to move on apparently

Woke up this morning to the news that the St. Louis Rams were able to bait the Washington Redskins into overpaying for the right to move up to the No. 2 position in the NFL Draft and potentially select Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Of course, that means the Browns are now out of the picture.

Deep breath. Serenity now. Serenity now.

According to multiple reports, the Redskins will give up their first-round picks in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and a second-round pick this year to the Rams.

Despite how some are going to try and spin this, the trade is more of a win by the Rams than a failure by the Browns.

St. Louis announced that they had no intention of selecting Griffin and said they wanted to have a trade done before the start of free agency, when their leverage would start to go down. The Rams were banking on finding one team that was willing to give in to their demands and make the trade on the Rams’ terms.

Enter the Redskins, who can always be counted on to do whatever it takes to win the off-season and get the most headlines. The fact that they rarely win during the season is an after thought in Washington.

And the idea that the Browns tried to work a deal but were “too late” is utterly absurd. The Browns could top the Redskins on any offer, they obviously hit their limit and were not willing to mortgage the future of the franchise the same way the Redskins were.

Plus it’s not hard to imagine the Rams looking at the two deals and realizing the Redskins are so dysfunctional that the future picks are more likely to be at the top of the draft than if they had made a similar deal with the Browns.

As much as we were on board with the idea of RG3 in Orange and Brown (we’ve written almost 3,500 words on the topic in the past month alone), now that he appears to be off the table it is time to move on.

The Browns aren’t exactly bankrupt in all this; they still have two selections in the first round and another one high in the second round. The worst-case scenario all along has been the team will select a Pro Bowl-caliber player at No. 4, a day one starter at No. 22 and a third, very good player at No. 37.

Is that really such a bad thing, Browns fans?

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What everyone else is saying:

Where do the Browns go from here? WFNY

Holmgren, Heckert can still put stamp on Browns Sam Drew Takes On

For the Browns, no deal was the right deal Terry Pluto

So much for that franchise quarterback thing Cleveland Frowns

The day the Browns missed out on RG3 Dawgs by Nature

(Photo by Getty Images)