REPORT: The Browns are still trying to trade for Patriots QB Jimmy Garoppolo

All right, it's time to take a break from Hightower Watch 2017 and catch up with more crazy trade rumors about Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.  Do these guys know how to party, or what?!

Going back to last week, the latest word was that New England wasn't going to be dealing Jimmy G, with ESPN's Mike Reiss saying that it was worth more to the Patriots to have a BAMF backup QB than it was to flip him for picks and then get caught with their pants down if Brady got hurt:

In a move that will have a ripple effect on all QB-needy teams, Patriots are not expected to trade QB Jimmy Garoppolo, per league sources.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 1, 2017

Of course, you can either take that at face value, or you can read it as the Patriots putting it out there that if a team really wants Jimmy, don't come at New England with a BS trade offer.  Who knows??

Then, we got a report today that the ante to sit at the trade table is two first-round picks.

According to @MikeGarafolo, it will take "a first round pick for this year AND a first round pick for next year" to get Garoppolo from Pats

— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) March 7, 2017

Jimmy Garoppolo stock market: "what it would take"
DEC: 1st and 4th
FEB: 1st and 2nd blockbuster
MAR: two 1sts
APR: two 1st + firstborn

— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) March 7, 2017

Of course, there just happen to be a couple teams with two first-round draft picks this year, and that's where we get this bombshell headline from Pro Football Talk:

Report: Browns would trade 12th overall pick for Jimmy Garoppolo

One tiny problem with that, though - the source article that PFT cites never actually says that anyone from the Browns said anything about trading their second first-rounder for Garoppolo.  Trust me, I read the whole thing twice, and I can count the number of Cleveland Browns articles I've read front to back on one hand.

Here's what Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot actually had to say about the Browns and how they want to use their sweet pair of first-rounders in the draft and maybe if they get into the trade market:

"Despite a report by ESPN that the Patriots won't trade Jimmy Garoppolo, I'm told that nothing has changed and that teams - including the Browns - will still try to land him.

One source told me he believes it might take as much as a No. 1 this year and No. 1 next year - which I'm sure the Browns won't be willing to do.

But if New England will accept their No. 12 overall pick and maybe another later selection, I think the Browns would strongly consider that."

So, with all due respect to PFT, Mary Kay, who's as plugged-in and knows her stuff just as well as anyone else covering the Browns, is basically just hypothesizing that the Browns would be down with trading pick 12.  If you read it carefully, she says she's heard from sources that the Browns are still interested in a Jimmy G trade, but she never actually says that she's heard from anyone that the Browns would trade their 12th pick, just that she can see it being something Cleveland would seriously think about.

This is how rumors get started, people!

Make sure you've got the Pats Pulpit Free Agent Tracker bookmarked this week, cause at this rate, you're definitely going to need it.