I think it is a matter of "what are they trying to do" vs "what are they trying to appear they are doing."

The leaving early thing seems to be either poor work ethic or a reflection of their lack of desire to trade. Or both. The FO should be there listening to offers, whether they want to trade or not, but I believe they didn't want to trade anything. I think Sashi and Paul are already looking at the draft and who they want. The coaches are the ones who would like people now. 

The failed trade falls in line with this and had to be intentional. Like them or hate them, the FO is too smart to screw this up the way they did. They took a stab at getting a QB for Hue to settle the media after JG went to SF without them trying, but the Bengals asked for too much. After saying no, the coaches probably argued with them until the FO contacted the Bengals and said yes - there is an article breaking down the timeline of events(Cleveland.com, maybe?). Then they purposefully missed the deadline. Had the trade gone through, they would have lost more than they wanted and been banged up for overpaying on AJM.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They decided to keep their picks and lose face, while making it appear they were trying to get the coach a vet