The Day the Browns Missed Out on Robert Griffin III?

As a fan of all Cleveland sports, Friday night felt great to me. I do not have a cable provider, so I know I only have access to five regular season Cavaliers games on "free television." Yesterday was one of those games as they were set to take on perhaps the best team in the NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder, on the road. This would be my first chance at seeing Kyrie Irving too, because he was out with a concussion during the previous game I had seen.

In one of the closest back-and-forth type of games you can get in basketball, the Cavaliers prevailed with a bunch of players coming through at opportune times. I was so happy with the Cavs' performance that I decided to call it a night -- maybe around 10:15 pm -- rather than hopping on the Internet for a quick take of other sports news.

After a couple of hours of football Saturday morning, I finally got on the Internet to check out Dawgs By Nature. I was met with the headline, "Man The F' Up," with a lead in that talked about everyone "getting the piss and vinegar out of their system" after the "Glazer-RG III" debacle. The first thing I thought was, "is this another debate about why we should/shouldn't take RG III?" Then, I scrolled down and saw the tweet from Glazer about the Redskins agreeing to a deal with the Rams to move up to No. 2 overall. It was real. RG III was not going to be in a Browns uniform in 2012. My reaction? Well...

...I will say this -- I was not surprised, and I was not crushed. I was a little disappointed because the thought of RG III was always intriguing, but I was not devastated. The reason? As soon as I heard a few weeks ago that the Washington Redskins were involved in trade talks with the Rams, I knew the Browns never stood a chance.

Sure, maybe the Browns could have offered something similar to Washington and been rejected. There were reports a few years ago that Mike Holmgren wanted to bet the farm with St. Louis and take Sam Bradford, but the Rams were sold on Bradford. It wouldn't surprise me that they would be willing to bet the farm on another quarterback, especially one with Griffin's potential. In this case, though, betting the farm would have been a bit too much, and in my opinion would have deviated from what this front office has been attempting to build toward. A bidding war between Cleveland and Washington could have escalated, but I think the Redskins would've stopped at nothing to make sure they came out on top. If they want to buy their quarterback, then let them. Dan Snyder's decisions haven't exactly made the Redskins a contender over the past decade.

Getting a franchise quarterback is important for any team, but missing out on one quarterback doesn't mean "it's all over." Maybe it feels that way because we've been waiting to have a legitimate quarterback since 1999, and it feels like the rug was just pulled out from under us in our path to acquire Griffin. The fact that I never got excited that he would be playing in orange and brown helped ease my "pain," but I certainly understand why everyone else was "over-the-edge" disappointed.

At least the Browns' front office can put together another plan over the next month and a half; it would have been much more difficult to adjust if this deal came on draft day.

The fact is that Cleveland still has a kick ass trade from last year that is going to pay dividends this year with the No. 4, No. 22, and No. 37 overall picks. Maybe Tom Heckert even trades the No. 4 pick to move down a little bit and acquire another first-round pick in 2013. That's what we'll be talking about the next couple of weeks. The guy we won't be talking about? RG III. This team has been in the basement of the NFL for a long time, but there are other ways for teams to build than relying on one player to be a savior. As the Browns go into next season with the likes of Joe Thomas, Alex Mack, Joe Haden, Jabaal Sheard, Phil Taylor, Ahtyba Rubin, D'Qwell Jackson, and perhaps three-or-more other young, high-impact players, I think we'll finally see the type of team Heckert intended to craft all along.