Daily Dawg Tags: Mr. Smith goes to Washington

The Cleveland Browns ongoing quarterback situation became a little clearer Tuesday night with the trade of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith.

The quarterback situation for the Cleveland Browns got a little bit clearer Tuesday night.

Late in the evening, Terez Paylor of The Kansas City Star broke the news that the Kansas City Chiefs agreed to trade quarterback Alex Smith to the Washington Redskins for Washington’s third-round selection in the 2018 NFL Draft and cornerback Kendall Fuller.

The Redskins then agreed to a four-year, $94 million extension with Smith that guarantees the soon-to-be 34-year-old quarterback $71 million, according to NFL.com. That also means that Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins is now set to be a free agent.

There is still no word, however, on whether or not Browns general manager John Dorsey went home at 5 p.m. and missed out on trading for a quarterback that he worked with while in Kansas City.

With Smith out of the equation, but Cousins hitting the market, the upcoming free agency period in March just got extremely interesting.

The Browns are among several teams — including the Denver Broncos, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars – that could be interested in bringing Cousins on board.

Cleveland Browns

The one, and possibly lone, advantage that the Browns have over every other team is that they can offer a bigger contract than anyone else to Cousins. If money is his sole objective, then the Browns could be his one and only stop on the free agency tour.

But beyond a fat paycheck, it could be hard for the Browns to compete with the Broncos, who might only be a quarterback away from a return to the playoffs; or the Bills, Viking and Jaguars, who all made the playoffs this past season with quarterbacks who do not have the same level of stats that Cousins brings to the table.

Of course, at least in the case of the Vikings with Case Keenum and the Jaguars with Blake Bortles, those teams have quarterbacks who have actually won a playoff game, something that Cousins has yet to accomplish despite his gaudy stats. People pounding the table for the Browns to sign Cousins want to ignore that, but it has to be part of the conversation.

Obviously if the Browns were to sign Cousins that takes a quarterback out of the picture in the first round of the draft. If they don’t, then there is almost no way that Dorsey skips picking a quarterback with the No. 1 overall selection.

The situation got a little bit clearer on Tuesday night. But the real fun is still to come once free agency hits in March.

Cleveland Browns news:

Browns offensive line: Stay or go in 2018?

The Cleveland Browns have several roster decisions to make for 2018, with left tackle possibly being an important one.

The case for drafting Minkah Fitzpatrick

The Cleveland Browns are pondering who to draft with one of their two first-round picks, and they could do worse than to select Alabama defensive back, Minkah Fitzpatrick.

Browns tried to trade for Alex Smith (cleveland.com)

"The Browns tried to trade for Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith, a league source told cleveland.com, but he’s going to the Redskins instead. Such is life for a 1-31 team."

NFL news:

A trade, a Kirk Cousins goodbye and Twitter mayhem (Washington Post)

"They say the only person more important than the Redskins quarterback in this town is the president, and there the president was on my living-room TV screen Tuesday night, and there I was in the kitchen, staring slack-jawed at my phone as the Redskins news rolled in. And rolled some more. And kept rolling."

Alex Smith leaves Chiefs better than he found them (Kansas City Star)

"If this weren’t such an economic no-brainer, one that saves the franchise $17 million it can use to shore up any number of needs, there might have been a reasonable case to keep Alex Smith after the best season of his career (4,042 yards, 26 touchdown passes and a passer rating of 104.7)."

Winners and losers from the Alex Smith trade (ESPN)

"Plenty of people figured that the Chiefs were going to trade Alex Smith this offseason to free up their starting job for 2017 first-round pick Patrick Mahomes. They were half-right. The Chiefs didn’t wait for the offseason to make their move, agreeing to a deal Tuesday night to deal Smith to Washington for a third-round pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller. Let’s break down the winners and losers from this swap, both now and in the offseason to come."