It's time for 'Extreme Quarterback Makeover: Cleveland Browns' to start in free agency

Stage one of the Extreme Browns Quarterback Makeover is about to commence.

The official opening of the negotiation period for free agency arrives at noon Monday. That doesn't necessarily preclude trades from being agreed to beforehand, as the Seattle Seahawks and Las Vegas Raiders showed with Friday's deal that sent quarterback Geno Smith to Las Vegas.

One of those methods is expected to produce at least one quarterback for the Browns for the 2025 season. There's also a chance the results of stage one could directly impact stage two, which is selecting a quarterback — presumably at No. 2 overall — in April's draft.

"There is some interconnectedness," Browns general manager Andrew Berry said last month at the NFL scouting combine. "I’m not going to say that they’re completely independent, but you also have heard me say that with the drafts are largely for the longer term decisions. So they could play off one another maybe slightly, but I wouldn’t say that the impact would be significant in that regard."

There already has been plenty written and discussed about the quarterback draft class, specifically about the two primary candidates should the Browns pick at (or trade up from) No. 2: Miami's Cam Ward and Colorado's Shedeur Sanders. There will be plenty more written and discussed over the next month and a half as well.

What about the next week or so? What exactly does Berry say is the organization's check-list for finding the right veteran quarterback, who very well could end up being the starter in 2025, at least in Week 1?

"That’s a must-have, guys that have that characteristic at an acceptable level or higher will be prioritized maybe relative to others," Berry said. "In some areas it may be arm strength or anticipation or the ability to move. And what you’re doing, you’re weighing these different bundles of characteristics and then ultimately aiming at the ones that have the most of what you desire. Now the added element or the added layer on top is availability and cost.

"That’s not something that we’ll know for a couple weeks, but you do as much planning as you can because free agency and the trade market, they generally take different twist turns, or at least that has been our experience over the past five years."

So who fits the bill? Specifically, who's on the market and could be passed off as legitimate No. 1s for a season?

The list of free-agent quarterbacks who would fall into that category, realistically, is only a handful. That group includes Sam Darnold, Russell Wilson, Daniel Jones, Justin Fields and Aaron Rodgers.

The question with that group is about cost. Berry indicated price wasn't a concern there.

"I will say this, our cash and cap position, like I mentioned, we always look at that on a multi-year planning perspective," Berry said. "It will not be prohibitive for us to do things if the opportunities present themselves." 

Not listed, for now, is Kirk Cousins. The Atlanta Falcons have been steadfast in their desire to keep him as Michael Penix's backup, although he met with owner Arthur Blank and asked to go to a team for which he could start.

The Falcons, though, have to ask themselves if a quarterback to whom they gave a four-year, $180 million contract in free agency last year is worth keeping on the bench. Cousins is a $40 million cap hit for Atlanta if he's on the roster this season, with a $10 million roster bonus due on Friday.

"We understand that it's not ideal to have a quarterback at that cap number," Falcons general manager Terry Fontenoit said at the combine. "Now, when we gave him that contract, the expectation was for him to be the starter at this point. So, that is a good number for a starting quarterback.

"But now that he's the backup, when we say we're comfortable, we're talking about the total funds allocated to the quarterback position. That's already baked in. And so it was baked in for him as a starter at that point."

The next group are the quarterbacks who would, at best, presumably be the bridge to whoever the Browns select in the draft. That group includes familiar faces like Jacoby Brissett and Joe Flacco, but also starters who flamed out elsewhere, such as Carson Wentz, Mac Jones, Jimmy Garoppolo, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Drew Lock and the list goes on from there.

Any one of those could go into training camp as the No. 1 quarterback, even into the regular season. However, the expectation would almost have to be that the Browns hope the baton gets passed on to the rookie at some point.

"We'll see," Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said at the combine. "I think so much of it is you see who the guys that are available, you look at all of them, and then if you're ready to pivot once March rolls around. But, like I said earlier, I mean, I'm open to a bunch of different areas."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ