Gerald McCoy says he wants to play for contender, instead agrees to play for mediocre Panthers

Gerald McCoy opted to turn down offers from both the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens to play for a mediocre Carolina Panthers team. The Panthers get better, but not enough to overcome their deficiencies while the Browns need to find defensive line help elsewhere.

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The Cleveland Browns made a strong pitch for Gerald McCoy, but he ultimately decided he'd rather continue not going to the playoffs, continuing his career with the Carolina Panthers. The reporting on the deal is that he took a one-year, $8.5M deal that's also been reported as an $8M deal that could escalate to $10M.

There is also some question as to whether the Browns and Ravens offered less, which would make sense for McCoy to go to Carolina or this from Ian Rapoport:

Gerald McCoy ends up taking less (with less guaranteed money) to play with the #Panthers and face his old team. 1-year deal worth roughly $8M with a chance to make $10M or so based on playing time and sack incentives. https://t.co/TbwJlg369A

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 3, 2019

If true, this one makes very little sense for McCoy.

A diminished quarterback that's just throwing a ball overhand again after shoulder surgery and a draft more oriented toward 2020 than 2019. Nevertheless, the Panthers were able to convince McCoy to play there, getting an opportunity to get some revenge against the Tampa Bay Bucs who replaced him with Ndamukong Suh.

The larger problem for the Browns is this once again highlights their very thin defensive tackle position. McCoy not only represented a huge influx of talent with a big time talent, but they are back to a situation where the backup defensive tackle positions are major question marks, an issue that killed the Browns in 2018.

The Browns, to this point, have added nothing other than the signing of Sheldon Richardson to aid the position. So they may continue to be on the look out for additional defensive tackle help or they might really like what they have in house, which seems iffy at best.

Gerald McCoy will be on the market next year, so the Browns could make another play for him to add him to what should be a stacked 2020 team. For now, the Browns may turn their attention to Eric Berry (again), but might be more interested in a player like Tre Boston, who has been sitting out there a while and has familiarity with defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.