Denver Broncos Rumors: Interest In Josh McCown Makes Sense

The Denver Broncos are clearly in the market for a quarterback, with only trade acquisition Mark Sanchez and 2015 draft pick Trevor Siemian on the depth chart. They’ve been tied to virtually every available signal-caller since losing Brock Osweiler and Peyton Manning, and now Josh McCown can be added to that list.

On Tuesday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport suggested that McCown is now on the Broncos’ radar if they can’t get a trade done with the San Francisco 49ers for Colin Kaepernick.

With the signing of Robert Griffin III, McCown is the odd-man out at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. Rapoport passed along some obvious logic that the Browns are looking to trade McCown, or they will cut him. The New York Jets were reported to have interest in McCown last week, and the 36-year-old should find a new team fairly easily if he is simply released by Cleveland. The possibility of a trade automatically limits the market for McCown a bit, but even then the Browns should be getting a fair amount of interest.

McCown would at least be viable competition for Sanchez as Denver looks for a new starting quarterback. Leaving out the 2014 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which was bad for all involved, McCown played 16 games (13 starts) during the 2013 and 2015 seasons and threw for 3,938 yards while completing close to 65 percent of his passes with a 25-to-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

An argument can be made that McCown is a better quarterback than Kaepernick, and acquiring him in a trade should not cost as much if the 49ers’ reported demands are to be believed. The money aspect is also a factor, as Kaepernick doesn’t seem willing to take a pay cut from the fully guaranteed $11.9 million he’s due this year in order to facilitate a trade and McCown is due just over $8 million over the next two seasons.

As evidenced by their run to a win in Super Bowl 50, the Broncos don’t need great quarterback play to win plenty of games. McCown has never started a significant amount of games for a good team, but he would finally land in a winning situation if Denver made a move to acquire him.