The negotiations between the Green Bay Packers, the Cleveland Browns and quarterback Tim Couch are still ongoing. But might not be for long.
GM/Head Coach Mike Sherman said Wednesday that the Packers are still interested in working a deal to bring the sixth-year veteran to Green Bay to back up Brett Favre next season, but if it's going to happen, it might have to happen soon.
"We're winding this thing down one way or the other," Sherman said. "I can't say that it's going one way or the other just yet, but it's winding down."
The Packers have been courting Couch for about two months. In early April, Couch visited the Lambeau Field facilities and met with coaches while expressing a desire to play in Green Bay, but coming to terms on a trade that will please the Browns and a contract that will please Couch has proved difficult.
Packers director of pro personnel Reggie McKenzie said the Packers and Browns were close on the former, but haven't seen eye to eye with Couch's agent in contract negotiatons.
"The Browns were not the problem, it was the agent," McKenzie said.
And while the Packers remain hopeful that a deal can be arranged, McKenzie conceded that the longer the process drags on, the less likely it is that all the parties can agree to terms.
"We would like to have already had him," McKenzie said, "because we were and still are interested. But the contract terms still haven't been negotiated and trying to get him out of Cleveland hasn't been negotiated. So it's wishful thinking right now.
"Probably in the next two weeks if it doesn't happen, it won't happen. That's where we are."
