The Cleveland Browns currently hold the rights to five quarterbacks, but several changes could still be looming for the position group.
One outcome still in the mix is a trade with the Atlanta Falcons for Kirk Cousins, a four-time Pro Bowler entering the second season of a four-year deal worth $180 million.
That kind of contract sounds like it would be a non-starter for Cleveland considering the two years remaining on Deshaun Watson’s onerous $230 million deal, as well as the team’s acquisitions of four other signal callers on cheap agreements this offseason. However, the price for Cousins in 2025 isn’t nearly as high as that figure makes it sound. In fact, the Browns might be able to get him on the cheap.
Atlanta owes Cousins $27.5 million for the 2025 campaign, but any team interested is not likely to take on more than $10 million of that cost. That, plus a late Day 3 pick, would probably be enough to bring in the 36-year-old quarterback to Cleveland as arguably an upgrade over anyone else currently on the roster.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were the most logical destination for Cousins until earlier this week, when they finally inked Aaron Rodgers to a one-year contract. The pool of teams Atlanta may be able to do business with in a Cousins trade has now shrunk to just a few, which Paul Kasabian of Bleacher Report noted on Friday, June 6.
“If the Browns aren’t comfortable with naming anyone from that quarter QB1, then a trade could potentially transpire,” Kasabian wrote. “Plus, the connection with Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, who was Cousins’ quarterbacks coach with the [Minnesota] Vikings in 2018 and offensive coordinator in 2018 and 2019, is certainly notable here as well.”
Kirk Cousins Makes Most Sense for Browns as Bridge to Shedeur Sanders, Dillion Gabriel
GettyQuarterback Shedeur Sanders of the Cleveland Browns.
The straightest-line argument for the Browns spending more money and assets on a QB in Cousins is that Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry need to show meaningful improvement over a three-win campaign in 2024 and provide legitimate hope for competitiveness in the short-term future, lest they lose their jobs at the end of the season.
If Cousins has more in the tank than Joe Flacco and remains a more viable starting option than Kenny Pickett — as he was in 2024 based on their respective usage — then he is the best option to fill the role of bridge veteran to a new era in Cleveland led by either Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel in 2026 and beyond.
Cousins is familiar with Stefanski’s scheme, and thereby as qualified as Flacco to help edify both Sanders and Gabriel in its intricacies. That scenario would allow the franchise to trade either Flacco or Pickett ahead of Week 1 and recoup whatever draft asset it surrenders to Atlanta in the hypothetical deal for Cousins.
Browns Have Several Options to Add, Subtract From QB Group
GettyQuarterback Dillon Gabriel of the Cleveland Browns.
Either Sanders or Gabriel could also potentially end up on the trade block come mid- or late-August, as the team has no need to carry five quarterbacks into the season.
Sanders’ upside and notable draft slippage for reasons other than his on-field talents could render him an interesting trade chip if the Browns find their initial instincts on the young QB were correct when they chose to pass over him through the first four rounds of April’s NFL draft.
Gabriel could also potentially prove a trade chip depending on how well both he and Sanders play over the course of the preseason, and which of them finishes higher on the Browns’ depth chart.
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