Browns: Does the Jimmy G deal push Kirk Cousins out of reach?

The Cleveland Browns were always going to face a bidding war if they wanted quarterback Kirk Cousins. But the starting point just hit a new floor thanks to Jimmy Garoppolo.

The Cleveland Browns are expected to be participants in the sweepstakes for Kirk Cousins once the former Washington Redskins quarterback hits free agency in March.

Depending on who you want to believe, the Browns will either:

• be all in on signing Cousins, who in three-and-a-half years as the starting quarterback did not lead to the Redskins to a single playoff win, or;
• they will simply be peripheral players as they bide their time while waiting to select a quarterback with the No. 1 overall selection of the 2018 NFL Draft.

If the Browns are interested in Cousins, however, they will be facing competition from a number of teams, including (but not limited to) the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals.

The one clear advantage that the Browns have over those other teams is that they can pay Cousins more money than any other team thanks to the more than $100 million in available cap space. (What, you thought that the opportunity to play for head coach Hue Jackson was going to seal the deal?)

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How much of that available cap space the Browns would actually need to use is unknown, but the picture became a little bit clearer on Thursday thanks to the San Francisco 49ers, who agreed to a five-year, $137.5 million deal with $90 million in  guaranteed money in the first three years, according to ESPN.

That contract means that Garoppolo, who has made just seven career starts in the NFL and thrown just 12 career touchdown passes, the league’s highest-paid player.

It also set the floor for any potential deal for Cousins in free agency.

It can be argued that Garoppolo had all the leverage when it came to working on a deal with the 49ers, who needed a quarterback as badly as the Browns do, which helped him pull down a deal that is completely out of proportion to his body of work.

But any team talking with Cousins is going to be in the same situation, so it seems realistic that the Garoppolo deal will be the starting point for any discussions between Cousins and his potential suitors.

Making Cousins the centerpiece of his first offseason would certainly make headlines for Browns general manager John Dorsey. Signing Cousins would, at least in theory, solve the quarterback problem for the next four to five years and free Dorsey from having to select a quarterback with the No. 1 or No. 4 overall selection in the upcoming draft.

But if the 49ers are truly giving $90 million in guaranteed money to Garoppolo (sorry, we’re still trying to wrap our head around that number), then any deal for Cousins would have to include a figure well north of $100 million in guaranteed money.

Headline grabbing? Sure. But it is also a move that would define Dorsey’s career in Cleveland, for better or worse, which could make it difficult for Dorsey to pull the trigger.

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Cousins is going to get paid, whether or not it is by the Browns remains to be seen.

And when that payday comes, he owes a big thank you to Garoppolo.