The Cleveland Browns should do the opposite of whatever Michael Lombardi suggests

The Cleveland Browns should ignore Michael Lombardi. Always.

For those who don’t know Michael Lombardi, no, he’s not related to Vince Lombardi, he just gets to sully his name by being bad at his job. He’s a former GM for the Browns in 2013 and spent years with the team in the 90s. He’s also a former NFL Network analyst.

If Lombardi opens his mouth, just assume he’s wrong.  That’s a good rule of thumb. His entire legacy is built around “Well, Bill Belichick speaks highly of him”. Cool, Belichick also hired Josh McDaniels, Charlie Weiss, and Matt Patricia, while drafting Aaron Hernandez. He’s not perfect. So his endorsement of Lombardi is irrelevant. Lombardi stands as one of the worst general managers in the Browns’ history for a reason.

Twice. Technically. He was the head of the player personnel under Belichick in the 1990s as well as GM in 2013. Lombardi famously overruled Belichick in 1995 when the coach wanted to draft Warren Sapp at No. 10 overall. Instead, the team traded down to No. 30 with the 49ers and took Craig Powell. He lasted just two years with the franchise.

Lombardi darkened our doorstep again in 2013 to once again ruin our lives. He let Phil Dawson and Josh Cribbs go while signing Jason Campbell to start at quarterback, Willis McGahee to start at running back and Paul Kruger to the worst contract I had ever seen. Until 2022.

He then traded Colt McCoy, brilliant (sarcasm), and then Trent Richardson. Considering how badly the 2014 draft pick was after the Richardson trade, I’m counting the trade as a loss.  Lombardi then went and wasted the 6th overall pick of 2013 on Barkevious Mingo.

Holy Jeebus.

Eric Reid, Kyle Long, DeAndre freaking Hopkins. All on the board at the time of the draft. Nope. Mingo. To say I have a disdain for Lombardi is like I said I love pizza. So if he’s giving the Browns advice. Just ignore it.

Michael Lombardi wants the Cleveland Browns to trade for Jimmy Garoppolo

Describing the idea of the Browns landing Jimmy Garoppolo as a “no-lose” situation, the former Browns GM really emphasized how much of a good idea this was. Lombardi even talks about how Garoppolo would likely remain an option even into Deshaun Watson’s return from his 11-game suspension, as Watson will largely be rusty.

Sure, sound logic. A guy who doesn’t practice for three months really shouldn’t be starting a game fresh off suspension, solid. Here’s another point, it takes a quarterback months to learn a new offense, and historically it’s not in the team’s best interest to waste draft capital on a free-agent-to-be-quarterback this late into the preseason.

In June, sure. Two weeks before September and three weeks before the start of the regular season? No.

Garoppolo wouldn’t like to be ready for the start of the season, and he’ll likely need a month, at least to get most of the playbook down. The time to get a replacement for Jacoby Brissett was before the team signed him in the first place. Brissett has the best shot of winning with this team because he has the most time with the playbook.

Lombardi is proving once and for all that he was an abject failure not only as a general manager but as an “analyst”.