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Last week, free agent defensive tackle Gerald McCoy left Cleveland without a deal, but it was said that he wanted to take his time before signing a deal to make sure he feels confident that he will be playing for a contender. Since then, he has taken visits with the Baltimore Ravens and the Carolina Panthers.
During his press conference at OTAs on Thursday, Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens was asked a lot of questions about McCoy. He believes the door is still open for McCoy to sign with Cleveland, and he is optimistic that the two sides can reach a deal. The fact that he’s met with two other teams since then doesn’t diminish his optimism:
“We want Gerald to go out and look at other places because when he makes the commitment here, we want him to be all in. Everybody that is going to be here is going to be all in, and that is what we need to get to where we are going. We are fine with him taking a look at everybody else. We do not care because we have told him who we were. If that is who he wants, he will end up here. He knows the direction we are headed.”
#Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens believes door open to sign Gerald McCoy and explains why he’s not sweating McCoy’s visits to #Ravens and #Panthers pic.twitter.com/ag0SDgVTDx
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) May 30, 2019
Kitchens also added that if playing for a competitor is one of McCoy’s goals, then he’d be coming to the right place in Cleveland. For as much as Cleveland is confident, though, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh echoed the same type of hope, following reports that McCoy had an excellent two-day visit with the team:
John Harbaugh spoke very highly of Gerald McCoy as a person. "I told him before he left, 'You haven't been here yet, but to my mind, you're a Raven -- you've always been a Raven. So, let's make it official.' We'll see, but it was great to have him here." #Ravens
— Luke Jones (@BaltimoreLuke) May 30, 2019
Free agency is something a player in the position that McCoy is in should take advantage of. Just think of it: he’s probably getting free flights, gourmet dinners, and getting to weigh his options of where he’ll feel most comfortable. The Browns are the talk of the NFL right now, but we did see once with Baltimore where they secured safety Tony Jefferson instead of Cleveland (but that was before Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham, and lots of other players came to town).