Cleveland Browns football is in the air with rookies reporting on Friday and veterans next Tuesday for the start of training camp for the 2025 season. All eyes will be on the quarterback position as the Browns enter camp with four guys battling it out for the starting role, a position battle I'm very excited to see.
The lead-up to training camp usually includes articles and lists of potential trades, which teams use to make last-minute roster repairs. Recently, Jordan Omalley wrote an article on AOL suggesting 12 trades he expects to happen before training camp. The first one he lists is the Browns trading for Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins.
"After tearing his Achilles in 2023, Kirk Cousins bounced back with Atlanta in 2024 and completed 68.4% of his passes. Cleveland has uncertainty under center, and head coach Kevin Stefanski knows Cousins well from their Minnesota days. A reunion would give the Browns a stable QB option."
No matter how little sense it makes, this narrative won't go away. It starts with Cousins' contract, which the Falcons are reportedly unwilling to cover a large portion of to facilitate a trade. Under his current deal, Cousins has a cap hit of $40 million in 2025 and $57.5 million in the next two seasons. As the Browns continue to pay the Deshaun Watson contract, taking on Cousins' current deal without Atlanta absorbing some of the cost is just not feasible.
In addition to the financials not making sense, Cousins's performance at the end of last season wasn't good. His passes were seriously lacking velocity, and his glaring physical limitations limited the offense. Over the final five games that he played, Cousins threw nine interceptions and fumbled the ball five times. You add in his lack of mobility, and you just have a guy who is a shell of his former self.
Now, I will admit that it usually takes the second year after an Achilles injury before guys return to full health, so some of the mobility and velocity issues will probably be a bit better in 2025. But personally, I'd rather roll with Joe Flacco and the two rookies than take on a massive contract for a quarterback who isn't the long-term answer.
At least with Joe Flacco, we have already seen in practices that the velocity and arm talent are still there. Kevin Stefanski had a ton of success with Flacco a couple of years ago, but that was on the fly and not with a whole offseason workout program together. And if Flacco can't perform, you easily turn to one of the rookies and see if they are potentially the long-term answer. From every way that I look at it, a Browns trade for Kirk Cousins doesn't make much sense, no matter how many people keep suggesting it.