Can the Browns give Kirk Cousins what he really desires?

The Cleveland Browns need a quarterback and Kirk Cousins will be available. But can the franchise give him what his heart most desires?

The Cleveland Browns are currently in their 25th year of searching for the next franchise quarterback.

That journey may finally come to an end in the coming months, most likely in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft as the Browns hold the No. 1 and No. 4 overall selections. There are numerous quarterbacks to choose from — most notably Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, USC’s Sam Darnold and UCLA’s Josh Rosen – and if general manager John Dorsey likes one there is nothing stopping him from making the selection.

But there is another option on the table in quarterback Kirk Cousins, who will hit free agency in March after his former team, the Washington Redskins, agreed to a trade to acquire quarterback Alex Smith from the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Browns can offer Cousins more money than any other team thanks to the more than $100 million in cap space that former executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown left Dorsey.

But what if money alone is not what Cousins is seeking?

Cousins was on PFT Live prior to the trade and said that while salary will play a role in his decision, it will not be the only factor. He said he wants to go to a situation where he can win, and wins have been in short supply for the Browns, especially under head coach Hue Jackson.

In addition to wanting to win, Cousins also craves a few more things from his professional life, according to an article from ESPN Senior Writer Kevin Van Valkenburg, who writes that Cousins “loathes uncertainty” and that Cousins wants to play for an “organization that knows what it’s doing.”

If that is true, that does not seem to bode well for the Browns.

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If there was ever an organization that defines uncertainty and gives off the appearance of not knowing what it is doing, it has been the Browns since 1999 and even more so under the ownership of Jimmy Haslam.

Dorsey is the fifth general manager to hold the role since Haslam bought the Browns in 2012. It sounds like Dorsey will have his work cut out for him when it comes to convincing Cousins that Cleveland is the place to be.

Luckily, Dorsey does have a few talking points to hit outside of handing Cousins the largest contract in NFL history. The Browns have a solid offensive line to protect Cousins, which should sound good to a quarterback who was sacked 41 times this past season in Washington.

The Browns also have 12 selections in the upcoming draft, which Dorsey can use to sell Cousins on the idea of adding offensive talent to the roster so that, despite the burden of having the richest contract in NFL history, Cousins would not have to do everything himself.

Dorsey can also lean on his track record in Kansas City with the Chiefs and in Green Bay with the Packers, two organizations that, more often than not, give off the appearance of knowing what they are doing.

As for the part about wanting to win … well, Dorsey will need to talk his away around that for the moment.

Next: Is A.J. McCarron a possibility?

The Browns are going to have considerable competition for Cousins if they decided to pursue him in free agency. They may not hold the best cards at the table, so Dorsey will have to play the ones he does have strategically to give the Browns a shot.

Whether or not that is enough to entice Cousins to give the Browns a shot remains very much to be determined.