As new head coach Todd Monken, general manager Andrew Berry, and the Cleveland Browns embark on a massive offseason, particularly when it comes to their quarterback room, they should look no further than the NFL’s newest Super Bowl champion for inspiration.
On March 7, the Seattle Seahawks traded starter Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders for a third-round draft pick. Three days later, they signed free agent QB Sam Darnold on a three-year deal with a max value of $100.5 million.
Come February, they were celebrating under the green confetti inside Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco, with two years still remaining on Darnold’s deal, and a young, 2025 draft pick in Alabama’s Jalen Milroe stashed behind him on the depth chart.
Seattle’s blueprint is now hiding in plain sight. Head coach Mike Macdonald first assembled one of the NFL’s best defenses, then went out and made the necessary moves on offense — adding established veterans like Darnold, Cooper Kupp and Rashid Shaheed — to help his team get over the hump.
How far away are Monken’s Browns from crafting a similar path? They’re obviously not close to the 2025 Seahawks, who were a 10-win team the year prior. But with a championship-caliber defense already in place, Cleveland could vault into contention much quicker than the masses think by simply improving to the mean on offense.
Monken was just hired to fix the Browns’ No. 31 ranked offense. To get there, he’ll need to get younger and more athletic along the offensive line, and add more speed and raw talent at the skill positions.
But even if Monken and Berry push all the right buttons in free agency and the draft, it’s never going to work with subpar quarterback play. The Browns could certainly take the safest path, rolling with Shedeur Sanders as QB1 with a now healthy Deshaun Watson behind him as the fallback option.
Or they could do what the Seahawks did to support their dominant defense, think bigger, and go get the perfect QB for Monken’s system with a $100 million contract offer.
Todd Monken’s Browns should go all-in on landing free agent QB Malik Willis
Contrary to popular belief, Berry has levers he can pull to clear bounds of 2026 salary cap space, and those moves are purely procedural.
The obvious problem? The Browns could have a hard time making much headway on their biggest roster needs prior to April’s draft.
The free agent options at premium positions like offensive tackle and wide receiver are less than ideal. The best market value might actually come from a multi-year deal for a QB.
The clear target, of course, is current Green Bay Packers backup Malik Willis, the 2022 third-round pick of the Tennessee Titans who’s enjoyed a renaissance of sorts under head coach Matt LaFleur.
Willis just played out the final two years of his rookie deal serving as Jordan Love’s backup, and he played efficiently whenever called upon. He’s appeared in 11 total games for Green Bay, including four starts, and completed a ridiculous 78.6 percent of his passes for 972 passing yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions, adding an additional 261 rushing yards and three scores on the ground.
The style comparisons to Lamar Jackson, Monken’s former quarterback as offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, are obviously there, and ESPN’s Ben Solak believes the Browns should come for Willis with an offer of $30 million per year.
“The Browns should aggressively pursue and sign Willis in free agency. Why not? Already leveraged aggressively against future cap years, the Browns will start to make up financial ground only once they have a quarterback on a good deal. If they trade for Will Levis or Anthony Richardson, with one year remaining on their respective contracts, they'll be negotiating from a weaker position should either player actually hit.
They should give Willis $30 million per year now, backload it and let him ride as their developmental starter for the next few seasons. His tools are so remarkably beyond those of Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, and he has a style of play similar to Lamar Jackson, with whom Todd Monken just worked. This is a good marriage.”
Spotrac actually projects Willis’ market value at $35.5 million per year, or $71 million over two seasons (thanks to the Raiders and Geno Smith). NFL insider Jason La Canfora, however, cited an NFL general manager who believes a contract closer to Justin Fields' two-year, $40 million deal with the Jets could be the better comp — while naming both the Dolphins and Browns as the early favorites.
But let’s just say the Browns borrow the same contract formula that Seattle actually recycled from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield back in 2023.
Cleveland could offer Willis a three-year deal worth $100 million in max value, with guarantees in the $50 million range, and structure it similarly to Darnold’s, with a sizable signing bonus that creates a small cap hit in Year 1, and a built-in out after two years; for example, in 2025, Darnold’s cap hit was $13.5 million, and Seattle can exit his deal for a dead-cap charge of just $19.2 million in 2027.
Adding Willis now would give the Browns the outside competition (and time) it needs for Sanders, while clearing the runway for Watson to move on after the 2026 season. Committing another six-figure contract to a QB may seem impossible, with Watson owned $46 million in cash in 2026 alone, but that money is fully guaranteed and has been planned for regardless, and a Darnold-esque deal for Willis wouldn’t place the Browns in “cap jail” or hinder them from landing other free agent targets on their board.
Really, it comes down to owner Jimmy Haslam. If he’s willing to cut the check for some signing bonus money and commit more real cash up front to a QB, a move like this could absolutely be in Cleveland’s bag come March.