Browns Contacted Bengals About QB A.J. McCarron Last Night

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the Browns reached out the Bengals about a potential trade for backup QB A.J. McCarron last night, but it doesn’t sound like talks got very far, as Cincinnati has set a high price for him.

Earlier in the week, Rapoport mentioned that it would take at least a first-round pick in order for the Bengals to trade McCarron. With this in mind, Rapoport considers a McCarron trade to be “pretty unlikely.”

The Browns have come up as a potential landing spot for McCarron, given that they’re in need of a quarterback and Hue Jackson worked with McCarron a few years ago.

One interesting note regarding McCarron that impacts his value is the fact that he will be a restricted free agent after the 2017 and not an unrestricted free agent. McCarron qualifies as a restricted free agent next year because he spent most of his rookie season on the non-football injury list.

McCarron, 26, is a former fifth-round pick of the Bengals back in 2014. He’ll be entering the final year of his four-year, $2,401,652 contract and stands to make a base salary of $690,000 for the 2017 season.

In 2015, McCarron appeared in seven games for the Bengals and completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 854 yards to go along with six touchdowns and two interceptions.

We’ll have more regarding McCarron’s future as the news is available.