Jimmy Garoppolo to the Browns “was never going to happen.”

If you were one of the most sought after free agent quarterbacks in the NFL, where would you want to play? Rank these teams for me: Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Washington.

I don’t know what your first choice would be, or your second or third, but I feel pretty comfortable saying that most people will have the Browns as the last team on their list. There is enough front office and coaching ineptitude to scare away even the most money-drive talent, and that is the reason why Jimmy Garoppolo was never going to go to Cleveland.

Garoppolo is a free agent after this season and, sure, the Browns could theoretically use the franchise tag for the next couple seasons, but that would just be a continuous band-aid that would leave the team in a state of unease without a long term solution at the most important position. And if Garoppolo isn’t going to sign a long term extension with a team, then why would that team send the Patriots an early pick?

Part of the due diligence in acquiring Garoppolo is determining the odds of reaching an extension and the 49ers feel much more comfortable in extending Garoppolo than the Browns would have felt.

And then there’s additional fall out when Garoppolo shares an agent with the Patriots starting quarterback Tom Brady. New England isn’t going to ruin their future negotiations with Brady to get a slightly better deal from Cleveland, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortenson.

“Don’t think you can blame @Browns for not getting in on Jimmy Garropolo [sic],” Mortenson tweeted. “That was never going to happen. Patriots have tremendous relationship with agent Don Yee, who reps [Jimmy Garoppolo] and Tom Brady.”

Now that Garoppolo is in San Francisco, Yee can be happy about both of his players getting ample playing time and maximizing their contract values and neither player has to go to Cleveland.