The Broncos’ brief look at Johnny Manziel won’t amount to anything, but Denver is keeping its eye on another quarterback who started games in Cleveland last season. According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Broncos will consider acquiring Josh McCown if they don’t ultimately land Colin Kaepernick from the 49ers.
McCown, who turns 37 in July, was arguably the Browns’ most effective signal-caller in 2015, despite the fact that the team lost seven of his eight starts. McCown tossed 12 touchdowns to just four interceptions, completing 63.7% of his passes and surpassing 2,100 yards passing in just half a season. His campaign was cut short by a broken collarbone.
Even with Manziel no longer in the mix though, McCown looks somewhat expendable in Cleveland. Robert Griffin III and Austin Davis are among the QBs currently on the roster, and the Browns are widely expected to use an early pick in this month’s draft to fortify the position. With the franchise in rebuilding mode, McCown, who has a $5MM+ cap hit for 2016 and remains under contract through 2017, doesn’t fit into the long-term plan.
For Denver, McCown wouldn’t necessarily represent a noticeable upgrade on the club’s in-house options of Mark Sanchez and Trevor Siemian, but he’s capable of starting, and would make for a reliable backup if he didn’t win the job. If the Broncos fail to acquire Kaepernick, they could attempt to land McCown in a deal similar to their trade for Sanchez, in which they surrendered only a conditional late-round draft pick.
The Broncos may prefer for the Browns to simply release McCown, since they could explore signing him on their own terms at that point. Still, the veteran’s salary on his current contract isn’t exorbitant — he would count for $4.375MM in cap space for any team that acquired him in a trade, with no guaranteed money beyond 2016.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Your back up plan is getting pretty desperate their Elway. This guy was a UFL player just 4 years ago and this was all part of the plan huh? I think you are scrambling like back in your playing days and nothing is working and the QB you want in the draft won’t be there when you pick or again you are being greedy and don’t want to give to get what you want. This is a bad offseason and the funny thing is all could have been worked out considering you have lost so much this year and will have 73 million to spend next year. I don’t think this was thought through for the long run. But he would spin it to make it as if they have drafted well and developed well -agreed. And will continue to do the same going forward. I hope since Ward, Ware, and Talib have 1 more year on their deals and the cupboards are getting a little bare.
As a browns fan If mccown goes to Denver I hope then win the super bowl again. Josh mccown is a class act and in the right situation a good situation.
My spell corrector sucks!! In the right situation mccown is a good qb.
I dont have a problem with this at all. They are looking for a QB to get them by this year. Im thinking that they want to draft lynch and hope he falls to them. He will need a year or maybe half the season to sit behind and learn how to run a nfl offense but im hoping they do this and I think thats their game plane. All they need for another good playoff run is a game managing QB and thats what mccown is