Josh McCown has heard the whispers.
With the Dallas Cowboys on the prowl for a quarterback, the veteran Browns passer acknowledged Thursday that the Cleveland brass have spoken with him about a potential trade.
"Just leave it like that," McCown said, per Tony Grossi of ESPNCleveland.com. "We're on the same page."
Coach Hue Jackson shot down McCown-to-Dallas rumblings during his Thursday presser, saying "There is nothing to it as far as we're concerned. I've heard about it, obviously I have, but I feel good that he's here. He's a Cleveland Brown and I know nothing else about the other part of it."
The Browns have given all their first-team camp snaps to Robert Griffin III, leaving McCown as a possible trade candidate for Dallas, who lost backup passer Kellen Moore this week to a broken ankle.
The trade makes sense on another level: McCown is from Texas and acknowledged that if he were to go anywhere, Dallas would be his pick. The 37-year-old journeyman went out of his way to note that he wears No. 12 as a tribute to Roger Staubach.
"The Cowboys, if you grew up in Texas, is near and dear to everybody's heart," McCown said, "But once you cross over into the business portion of this life, those allegiances kind of fly out the window and you have a job to do. And so for me, my job and my heart is here -- and doing everything I can to help the Cleveland Browns be good. So that's what I'm about.
"And like I've told you guys before," McCown said, "you spend five minutes in this city and it's easy to be all in because of how people feel about this team."
The Browns also have Austin Davis and rookie Cody Kessler on the roster behind Griffin. Davis is a run-of-the-mill backup who won't go AWOL on the team ala Johnny Manziel. Kessler bonded quickly with coach Hue Jackson before the draft and remains a dark horse to see starts down the road.
McCown isn't a long-term target for the youth-infused Browns, but he's also potentially their best quarterback for 2016. He's also an unmatched leader in the locker room, which has plenty of value for a team with one of the league's youngest rosters.
