Lowell Cohn: 49ers, Browns in tug of war over Colin Kaepernick’s worth

ESPN.com led with this headline on Monday. Sashi Brown: Colin Kaepernick trade talks overblown.

To which we have several reactions.

Uh-oh, yet another Kaepernick story.

In what sense, overblown?

Who is Sashi Brown and do people who work for the Browns have to be named Brown?

So you won’t fret about Brown, let’s knock him off first. He is the Browns’ new director of football operations, a young man on the rise. Being named Brown almost certainly was not a condition of his getting hired, but it probably didn’t hurt. When you work for the Browns, better to be named Brown than Blue or Green or, heaven forbid, Magenta.

Now to substantive issues. Here is a sample of what Brown told reporters about Kaepernick who, through his agents, has expressed an interest in playing in, umm, Cleveland.

Brown said trade talks with the Niners are “way over-reported.”

Brown said, “Not actively engaged with San Francisco and, at this point, don’t anticipate being actively engaged with San Francisco. But I know it’s that time of year when something can catch a headline.”

Brown said, “Had some very preliminary discussions and it didn’t go much further than that.”

To which we say, “Hey, Sashi, why beat down the media?” To which we say, “Hey, Sashi, what is the difference between preliminary discussions and very preliminary discussions?”

I know, parsing words makes me a media nerd.

Here’s a for-real, serious question: What in the world are the Browns, not to mention Sashi Brown, doing?

They are playing the Trade Game with the 49ers. Playing it through the headline grabbing media, if you will.

This is what I mean. The 49ers want a second-round draft pick for Kaepernick. That’s what has been reported. The Browns think a second-round pick is way too high for a player who, after all, got benched last season and who, everyone agrees, played badly.

So, the Niners and Browns are in a tug of war, both tugging on Kaepernick. The Browns want to offer low, and the Niners want them to offer high. Watch them tug.

Brown and the Browns just made the next move in the Trade Game. It’s a predictable move, also a smart move. They said they’re not all that interested in Kaepernick, said their so-called interest in Kaepernick is overblown and over-reported. They implied they can take No. 7 or leave him.

And mostly they are saying something like this: “You don’t like our offer now? Well, if you don’t act fast, it could get worse.”

The hard sell.

The Browns also are saying, “Niners, you thought you had the upper hand. Wrong. We have the upper hand in this negotiation that we’re pretending is not a negotiation.”

To prove they have the upper hand, the Browns just worked out Robert Griffin III. Said he looked good and all that. The hidden message to the Niners was they better move fast because the Browns could lose interest in Kaepernick and go for super-duper RG3.

Except that’s ridiculous. Griffin no longer looks good or is good or can be good. Not his fault, poor guy. He’s damaged goods, used to run like the wind, now runs like an Amana freezer. Soon, he will be out of the NFL. But the Browns are using him as leverage with San Francisco. It’s sad when a player becomes mere leverage, a pawn in a chess game.

Trent Baalke, I’m assuming, knows what the Browns are doing with Griffin. Knows Brown and the Browns are playing the Trade Game. Knows very well Cleveland coach Hue Jackson is gaga over Kaepernick. Baalke, after all, interviewed Jackson at length in the offseason for the vacant 49ers head coaching job. One assumes Jackson spoke love sonnets about Kaepernick, a player he’s craved for years.

Which means Baalke can use what he knows about Jackson’s hopes and dreams. Can wait. Wait for the Browns to meet his conditions or come close.

I will add this. The 49ers are the best place for Kaepernick, although Kaepernick doesn’t understand it. Chip Kelly’s system of run and gun matches perfectly Kaepernick’s “skill set,” as the pundits say.

It’s just that Kaepernick no longer wants to play for San Francisco. Something about the “trust factor” being broken. Something, I think, about management leaking to the national media that Kaepernick isolated himself on the team last season. A diva.

I believe Kaepernick isolated himself from the team. But from everything I know, management was innocent of that leak. From everything I know, it came from a player. And if I’m right, Kaepernick does not have a beef with Jed York or whomever, and should stay with the 49ers and collect his $11.9 million next season and play for Kelly.

But that won’t happen. He has made himself clear. He wants out. Maybe Baalke also wants him out. What the 49ers and Kaepernick have on their hands is a damaged relationship. Anyone who’s lived long enough knows damaged relationships don’t undamage.

Kaepernick gets traded by April 1. Probably to Cleveland in spite of what Sashi Brown said.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell. cohn@fpressdemocrat.com.