The path for the Browns to secure AJ McCarron as their next starting quarterback became easier Thursday.
An arbitrator ruled in favor of McCarron in his grievance against the Cincinnati Bengals, determining the two-time national champion from the University of Alabama will be an unrestricted free agent when the new NFL year begins at 4 p.m. March 14, a person familiar with the situation confirmed for the Beacon Journal. The Cincinnati Enquirer and NFL Network first reported the news.
If McCarron had lost the grievance, he would have been a restricted free agent. In other words, the Bengals would have had the right to match any contract offer from another team and could have received draft-pick compensation if they chose to let him leave.
The Bengals argued McCarron suffered a right shoulder injury away from the team and placed him on the non-football injury list when he was a rookie in 2014. McCarron was on the active roster for just the final three games that season, so he didn't reach the six games needed to accrue a season toward unrestricted free agency. But McCarron contended he shouldn't have been placed on the NFI list in the first place.
After filing the grievance about a year ago, McCarron prevailed and will hit the open market as a result.
The Browns will likely pursue him once teams are permitted to begin negotiating with his agent March 12. Browns coach Hue Jackson loves McCarron after serving as the Bengals' offensive coordinator during the first two seasons (2014-15) of the quarterback's professional career.
It's why the Browns agreed to trade second- and third-round picks for McCarron this past fall before the front office failed to finalize the deal prior to the NFL's deadline of 4 p.m. Oct. 31. At the time, Sashi Brown was Cleveland's head of football operations. He was fired Dec. 7 and replaced by general manager John Dorsey.
Jackson and Dorsey are seeking a veteran quarterback to start in 2018 while the rookie they'll likely draft first overall on April 26 watches and learns.
Jackson is convinced McCarron, 27, fits the bill, even though he has been stuck behind Andy Dalton on the Bengals' depth chart throughout his NFL career.
The Browns wanted Alex Smith to fill the veteran starter role for them and were disappointed when Washington agreed to accept Kansas City's offer of a third-round pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller on Jan. 30 instead of Cleveland's reported proposal of a second-round selection. The Browns were reportedly unwilling to give Smith, who'll turn 34 on May 7, a four-year contract extension reportedly worth $94 million, including $71 million guaranteed, like Washington did.
The morning of the trade, Smith appeared on the Dan Patrick Show and made it clear he had no interest in joining the Browns, who went 0-16 last season and 1-15 in 2016 under Jackson.
"I mean they've got nowhere to go but up. 1-31 over the last two years just sounds amazing," Smith said. "... If you're going somewhere, yeah, you want to go somewhere you have a chance to have success."
Smith coming to Washington means quarterback Kirk Cousins is on his way out. Cousins is expected to headline free agency and command somewhere in the ballpark of $30 million a year. The Browns are projected to have a league-high $110 million in salary-cap space when free agency begins.
But like Smith, Cousins has publicly stated his desire to join a team capable of winning early and often, not exactly a spot-on description of the Browns.
"I'm going to be willing to make sacrifices or do what has to be done to make sure I'm in the best possible position to win," he told ProFootballTalk.com Jan. 30, "and that's what the focus is going to be."
Cousins' message hasn't stopped Browns 10-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas from presenting him with a sales pitch (Denver Broncos edge rusher Von Miller also has launched a public campaign in hopes of luring Cousins). Thomas has stated on the ThomaHawk Show Podcast he co-hosts with former Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins that Cleveland would build Cousins a statue if he were to reverse the fortunes of the franchise.
"I hear Cleveland is nice this time of year, that is, if you'd like to have a statue someday," Thomas tweeted at Cousins on Thursday.
"You could make MORE money and MORE history in Cleveland than anywhere else, by FAR," Thomas wrote in another tweet. "Don't just go and be another quarterback somewhere else!"
Thomas wouldn't need to beg McCarron, though, because he just wants to play. For that reason, he was devastated when the trade to the Browns fell through.
"As a competitor, I wanted that opportunity, just to be able to showcase and help a team win ball games," McCarron said Jan. 10 during a radio interview with WNSP-FM in his hometown of Mobile, Ala. "I think I would have had some success playing for Hue. I would have loved the opportunity to go up there and get them a win, more than one win. As a competitor, that's all you can ask for."
McCarron could soon get another shot to join the Browns, though they're expected to have competition. On Wednesday, Vic Lombardi of Altitude Sports Network told ProFootballTalk.com the Broncos would be interested in McCarron if he were an unrestricted free agent.
McCarron is 2-2 as an NFL starter, including 0-1 in the playoffs. A fifth-round pick in 2014, McCarron made all four of his starts in 2015 after Dalton suffered a broken thumb. McCarron threw a go-ahead touchdown pass late in an 18-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers during the AFC wild-card round on Jan. 9, 2016, Jackson's last game with the Bengals.
In McCarron's three regular-season starts, he completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 854 yards and six touchdowns with two interceptions and posted a rating of 97.1. In his lone postseason start, he completed 56.1 percent of his passes for 212 yards and a touchdown with an interception and had a rating of 68.3.
McCarron appeared in three games last season in backup duty and threw just 14 passes.
Among the other veteran quarterbacks the Browns could target are Philadelphia's Nick Foles, Buffalo's Tyrod Taylor, Minnesota's Case Keenum, Sam Bradford or Teddy Bridgewater, New Orleans' Chase Daniel and the New York Jets' Josh McCown.
