Kirk Cousins, Chicken, and the Browns

A dumb game played by a dumb team

While I don’t think Kirk Cousins is going to be a good NFL quarterback in 2025, I’ve been wrong before. I thought the same for Russell Wilson last offseason. Sometimes the injuries, the offensive vibes, or any number of other things are just off. In Cousins’ case, he self-reported after the season to the media that he played through an unlisted injury.

"I, against the Saints, got hit pretty good in my right shoulder and elbow and from there kind of dealing with that was something I was working through and just never really could get it to where I wanted it," Cousins said.

But what seems to be a fairly open-and-shut case of old quarterback replaced by young quarterback has become a trial. The Falcons have denied that they were aware of an injury at the combine — perhaps to try to save themselves from drawing another fine. They also have maintained that they plan to keep Cousins for … some reason? Let me get some exact words here:

"Now, when we gave him that contract, the expectation was for him to be the starter at this point, and so that is a good number for a starting quarterback," Fontenot said. "But now that he's the backup, when we say we're comfortable, we're talking about the total funds allocated to the quarterback position, and that's already baked in.

"And so, it was baked in for him to start at that point, but now as a backup -- again, he handled himself well at the end of the season, and so when you look at our team, we're comfortable at this point."

So the Falcons — a team that can’t get any cap relief from cutting the quarterback, but also a team that very clearly blindsided said quarterback when they picked Michael Penix Jr. in the top 10 last year, is going to sit on Cousins. Or at least that’s the party line.

I think it’s a good instinct that the Falcons want to trade Cousins — they can actually recoup a small bit of cap space from that — but let’s read the market. Who is trading for Kirk Cousins on this contract after last season? What would that look like? Here’s what The Athletic’s Josh Kendall said about it:

Yes, I think Cousins will be traded. Now that the March 17 deadline has passed, there’s no reason for the Falcons to release him, and I don’t believe he’s going to be Penix’s backup in Week 1. Here’s the mental math I think Atlanta is using right now: Four teams that need a starting quarterback (Titans, Giants, Steelers, Browns) minus three available quarterbacks who are viewed as viable starters for 2025 (Cam Ward, Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson) equals somebody desperate for a quarterback when the draft is complete.

…

I think your expectations are realistic here, and now that the Falcons have proved they weren’t bluffing about the deadline, it’s reasonable to think they could get a fourth or a fifth for Cousins. NFL insider Josina Anderson reported last week that the Falcons are getting calls from interested teams and the compensation could be as high as a third-round pick. I’ll be shocked if Atlanta gets that in return, though. I think Falcons fans should be thrilled with a fourth-rounder and call a fifth-rounder reasonable.

We have the Titans I think clearly taking Cam Ward — and even if they don’t, for some reason, I’m not seeing a reason to prefer Kirk Cousins over Will Levis if it costs real draft capital given where they are as a franchise. The Giants signing Cousins is a dead idea after they added Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston. The Steelers are locked in on Rodgers. That leaves the Browns.

I’m not 100 percent sure what to believe when it comes to Shedeur Sanders’ draft prospects. He’s clearly the No. 2 quarterback on most boards, and the Giants — who have extensively spent time targeting Sanders — have clearly spent a lot of time with him. I think you could make the argument that the Browns won’t have a chance to draft him if they don’t take him at No. 2. What is holding me back from being more concrete about that is a) the draft is a lying season and b) my own personal belief is that Sanders doesn’t have the tools to be a top-five pick.

The Browns — who did restructure Deshaun Watson again despite my earlier review, I think after realizing the alternatives weren’t pretty — only have about $18 million in cap space. They have to sign a whole draft class. (The No. 2 overall pick is going to have a $7.1 million cap hold, and the Browns’ class currently projects to cost $16.7 million.) The kind of salary relief they can offer the Falcons for Cousins — regardless of the fact that he’s an upgrade on Kenny Pickett — is minimal. I completely respect the fact that Sanders isn’t for everyone as a first-round pick, and while I don’t agree that Jaxson Dart is better, I can understand how a team would come to that conclusion on a draft board. It’s a reach to pick Sanders at No. 2. It also was a reach to take Bo Nix in the top-15 last year in my estimation. At some point the lack of alternatives outweigh the cons.

So we have the Falcons with a clearly strained relationship with their quarterback, and the upside of this relationship is … you might get a trading team to take on some of his salary, and you might get a Day 3 pick. Not only does nobody in the NFL think this is worth it, but if Kirk Cousins weren’t a more congenial man he’d probably be dragging you in public. I’m almost positive he’s dragging you in private. The trade market for him is extremely limited, perhaps as low as one team, and maybe as high as 2-3 teams if Aaron Rodgers retires. (I think the Vikings would be a more interesting fit for Cousins if he’s willing to challenge J.J. McCarthy, but he does have a no-trade clause he can wield as he sees fit.)

And it makes your organization look cheap. The entire Cousins saga for the Falcons has been a tour de force of unforced errors. Not only did they not wind up needing him, but they were the only team really bidding for him in a major way and gave him a huge contract. They didn’t communicate the idea that he’d be looking over his shoulder instantly. They put together a game plan that helped hide his comeback from a torn Achilles but also made him a sitting duck whenever the team was forced to pass. And then they either didn’t communicate the shoulder situation correctly or didn’t want to, making the quarterback look bad.

I don’t know that Cousins has a lot left in the tank, but he deserves a chance to find a team that will give starts to him if it’s not going to be the Falcons. It’s a waste of everyone’s collective time to imagine a future where he’s their backup and it matters.