Report: Cowboys considering Browns QB Josh McCown as a trade option

Could a Cleveland Browns-affiliated quarterback be headed to the Dallas Cowboys in the near future? We’re not talking about Johnny Manziel; we’re talking about Josh McCown.

Cowboys backup QB Kellen Moore suffered a broken right fibula during practice on Tuesday. Given the fact that Dallas has a very talented roster but always seems to have disastrous luck with the health of starting QB Tony Romo, they’d really like to have a solid backup in place.

The most obvious solution would be for them to sign recently-released QB Nick Foles. However, multiple reports — including from Mary Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer and Ed Werder of ESPN — say that if the Foles plan falls through, Dallas could be looking to acquire a quarterback via a trade, with McCown being one of the top candidates. You might think, “meh, the Cowboys will just sign Foles,” but not so fast — Adam Schefter of ESPN just reported that the Chiefs could be bidding for his services too:

For Cleveland, the timing might make sense if they decide to trade McCown. Hue Jackson should be naming Robert Griffin III the team’s starting quarterback in the next week or two, and they could add a draft pick or maybe even a young camp player in exchange for him. However, word is that the Browns have also been very impressed with how good of a teammate McCown has been this offseason, and they might prefer to keep him around anyway given the injury history of Griffin.

I think it’s tough to predict what compensation Cleveland could receive for McCown, but I could guess a conditional 7th round pick, which could bump up to a 5th or 6th round pick if he starts a certain number of games. To me, that’d basically be the same as donating McCown to the Cowboys for free, so I wouldn’t make that deal. Would you?