The Cleveland Browns are one of those franchises that are annually linked to every available quarterback on the market.
Such is life in the NFL when you have gone through 42 different starting quarterbacks since 1999, a roster of names filled with draft picks both high (Baker Mayfield at No. 1 overall) and low (Spergon Wynn in the sixth round); bridge quarterbacks like Jeff Garcia, Trent Dilfer, and Jake Delhomme; and emergency starters like Bailey Zappe, Bruce Gradkowski, and Thaddeus Lewis.
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One name has consistently been linked to the Browns over the years, and that is 37-year-old Kirk Cousins. As far back as 2018, when Cousins left Washington as a free agent to sign with the Minnesota Vikings, fans and media have pined for Cousins to put on a Cleveland uniform.
Those calls increased after the Browns hired Kevin Stefanski as head coach in 2020, given that the pair worked together for two seasons in Minnesota, but neither side showed much interest before Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons as a free agent in 2024.
Ironically enough, rather than have Cousins come to him, Stefanski has gone to Cousins, or at least Atlanta, after being named the Falcons 20th head coach in January.
But that long-anticipated reunion may not take place after Tuesday’s news that the Falcons are planning to release Cousins when the new league year begins on March 11. The move has been expected ever since the two sides reworked Cousins’ contract to reduce his 2026 base salary from $35 million (nonguaranteed) to $2.1 million.
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Now that Cousins will be back on the market, expect the Browns to be once again linked to the 14-year veteran.
The question, of course, is whether general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Todd Monken are interested in finally bringing Cousins to Cleveland?
It wasn’t always the best of times for Cousins in Atlanta, as the Falcons selected quarterback Michael Penix in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft just a month after signing Cousins as a free agent. While he would start 14 games during his first season in Atlanta, injuries to his shoulder and elbow suffered in a Week 10 game led the Falcons to bench Cousins for the final three games of the season.
Penix opened the 2025 season as the starter, only to suffer a partially torn ACL, and the Falcons turned back to Cousins for the final seven games of the season. In better health and two seasons removed from a torn Achilles, Cousins was in better form and helped the Falcons close out the season with five wins in his eight starts.
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Cousins would immediately become the best quarterback on the roster. Although that comes with the qualifier that the roster currently has a broken-down veteran in Deshaun Watson, and a pair of the statistically worst rookie quarterbacks of the past 25 years in Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel.
The quarterback market in free agency is not a robust one, unless you fancy the idea of paying Malik Willis around $20 to $30 million a year for the next couple of years. Likewise, the draft is low on top quarterbacks after Fernando Mendoza, but high on developmental ones, which don’t help the Browns much this fall.
This puts Cousins back into the conversation as the latest bridge quarterback tasked with holding things together for a season while the front office figures out what to do next. And if Cousins is willing to play at or near the league minimum because the Browns offer him a strong opportunity at starting this fall, he becomes even more attractive as the club enters the final year of Watson’s contract.
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The problem is that if Cousins gives the Browns even average quarterback play, they probably win enough games to take themselves out of the running for the type of high draft pick in 2027 required to solve the quarterback issue.
A season of eight or nine wins would certainly be better than what took place the past two years, but Cousins is not the long-term answer, so what would the Browns really be gaining by signing him?
Just as it appeared that the Cousins to Cleveland chatter was finally over after eight years, he is going to be back on the market. And, as always, the Browns need help at quarterback.
So let the speculation begin!
What do you say, Browns fans? Should the team finally end years of talk and sign Kirk Cousins in free agency? Have your say in the comments!
