Browns now have another free agent option in quarterback A.J. McCarron

The Cleveland Browns have another quarterback to consider in free agency now that A.J. McCarron will officially be an unrestricted free agent.

The Cleveland Browns picked up another option in free agency at the quarterback position late on Thursday.

A.J. McCarron, who has been a backup quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals since 2014, had an independent arbitrator rule in his favor and will become an unrestricted free agent come March 14.

The news was first reported by the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport:

Somewhere near the nation’s capital, quarterback Kirk Cousins is experiencing a disturbance in the force.

OK, not really, as Cousins is on another level — both in terms of production and expected salary — than McCarron. But it will come as a major surprise if the Browns are not in the mix to sign McCarron, who has four NFL starts and 174 pass attempts on his résumé.

Almost all of those passes came in 2015 when Browns head coach Hue Jackson was the offensive coordinator of the Bengals. That season McCarron completed 99-of-156 attempts (63.4 percent) for 1,044 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions.

It was just last October at the trading deadline that Jackson went directly to owner Jimmy Haslam with the intent of trading a second- and a third-round draft pick for McCarron. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and now the Browns have the opportunity to acquire McCarron for nothing more than cash.

That, of course, raises the question of whether or not general manager John Dorsey even wants McCarron. While an argument can be made that McCarron might be the best quarterback among a group that includes DeShone Kizer, Cody Kessler and Kevin Hogan, that doesn’t mean he is good.

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Bringing McCarron to the Browns also presents some potential problems as Jackson will  likely focus all his attention on McCarron, while ignoring every other quarterback on the roster, in a bid to prove to everyone how smart he is for seeing gold in a backup quarterback with just 174 career pass attempts.

That could actually benefit the Browns in the long run, however, as signing McCarron would in no way preclude Dorsey from using one of the team’s first-round draft picks on a quarterback. Letting Jackson focus all his attention on McCarron would keep him away from the rookie quarterback and ensure that the rookie would not see the field this fall, giving whoever the Browns select the additional time they need to refine their game.

McCarron could be the first test between Dorsey and Jackson over who really has control of the Browns. If another team really wants McCarron, it is hard to see Dorsey getting into a bidding war just to appease a head coach that he did not hire and who has posted a 1-31 record in Cleveland.

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Thursday’s ruling makes things much more interesting, however, and the pursuit (or lack thereof) of McCarron could give everyone some insight into just how aligned Dorsey and Jackson are about the direction of the Browns.