A little over a month ago, when Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry was addressing the status of quarterback Deshaun Watson, he focused his assessment through the health of his player. Watson had been lost for the season to a torn Achilles, and the first priority was the quarterback’s health and recovery. After that?
“Everything else we’ll deal with at a later moment,” Berry said.
That later moment, and the options to facilitate the health and recovery of the franchise, are now exponentially more interesting. For the first time since Watson’s performance and health went off a cliff — taking the Browns’ 2024 season with him — the Browns may be presented with a realistic bridge out of the Watson era. And it could come from the very team that Cleveland outbid to acquire him in 2022.
Enter the Atlanta Falcons and now-benched quarterback Kirk Cousins.
As wild as it sounds, if the Browns are serious about bringing in competition for Watson in 2025, Cousins would present the combination of the most talented, experienced, cheap and scheme-appropriate player available.
Of course, at the moment, Cousins isn’t available. So there are some moving parts here to consider. Let’s walk through the logic, starting with …
Michael Penix Jr. plays well enough to make Kirk Cousins an afterthought
Everyone is already writing Cousins out of the Falcons script for good, but there is a very important step that has to come first. Simply put, Penix has to both stay healthy and play well enough to show that Cousins was definitively the problem over the last five weeks of the season. Because the simple truth is he wasn’t the entire problem the first nine games of the season, when the Falcons amassed a 6-3 record and Cousins’ touchdown-to-interception ratio was a workable 17-to-7. Was he perfect? No. But there was no anticipating him being benched just five games later.
Something clearly changed over the last five games, leading Cousins to make some inexplicable decisions with the football and completely lose the confidence of Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. Rarely does that kind of total collapse happen for no discernible reason. Yet we’re led to believe that’s what is happening in Atlanta. If it is, we’ll see the difference when Penix steps in as the starter — and Cousins will then be firmly erased from Atlanta’s future. Once that happens, the next step becomes …
Cousins’ forcing his release after the season
He might have handled his demotion with class, but Cousins doesn’t have to do the Falcons any favors by facilitating a trade. It wasn’t that long ago that Atlanta made the business decision to select Penix without alerting Cousins to the move until they were on the draft clock. Now he can make the business decision of forcing himself to free agency. And all he needs to do to make that happen is sit tight until the Falcons are pressed up against March 16, 2025 — when a $10 million salary guarantee for 2026 will be triggered if Cousins is still on the roster.
Atlanta is already on the hook for $27.5 million in 2025 salary. It makes no sense to add another $10 million on top of it. After making some calls to understand where this is going, I believe a release is the exact scenario that will play out in March, so long as Penix shows he’s ready to take over. After that, the next moving part for a Cousins and Browns union would be …
The Browns coming to the conclusion that Watson shouldn’t continue as their unquestioned starter
Circling back to that Berry media conference in November, the message with Watson has seemed pretty clear. Cleveland’s braintrust isn’t going to simply do nothing and cross their fingers that everything suddenly reverses course with Watson in 2025. From what I’ve been told, the Browns have a plan to address the situation and it will become very apparent in the offseason. First and foremost, they can’t cut him. As topics go, debating Watson’s release has been a waste of oxygen from the start. Such a move would generate a $172.7 million cap hit in 2025.
Even if he were designated a post-June 1 release (spreading the damage over two years), Cleveland would still take a hit of $118.9 million in 2025. That means no matter how you cut Watson, you’d have to also cut half the team just to absorb the cap problem. Ok, so he’s not getting cut. That doesn’t mean he has to continue on as the team’s starter. The cost is the cost. That’s baked in no matter what. But the football should be weighed on its own. Watson should be told that the starting job is going to be a competition, beginning in the offseason. After that …
Recruit Cousins on a veteran minimum deal and sell the Browns as being a playoff team with him at QB
Frankly, this is the most difficult part of the setup. I think Penix will play well enough to make Cousins obsolete in Atlanta; I think Cousins will force the Falcons to release him; and I think if the Browns braintrust was being brutally honest, they’d admit it’s time to move on from Watson as the starter. But convincing Cousins that Cleveland is his best destination … that’s going to be a tough sell. First and foremost, because Watson will still be on the team, which will make for a very awkward quarterback room. Second, because this iteration of the Browns is arguably not as good as the 2023 team that went to the playoffs with Joe Flacco. And finally, Cousins will likely have some options — especially with the Falcons paying him $27.5 million in 2025 and being able to play for a veteran minimum salary for another team.
Even if you remove the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants from the pool of quarterback-needy teams (assuming they each draft a rookie), there are still likely to be other obvious bridge opportunities. That squarely fits the Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts, who could look for a veteran starter this offseason to challenge Will Levis and Anthony Richardson, respectively. But it could also end up including the New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. The other potential landing spots are big unknowns right now. So too is the question of what coaching staffs and front offices still see Cousins as starting material, or if he fits their scheme or playing environment.
That’s a lot of variables to making a Cousins union happen for the Browns. But it’s a worthy pursuit at this stage. Especially if you believe his five-game implosion isn’t a permanent step off a talent cliff. One way or another, Cleveland has to find a way through the remaining years on Watson’s deal. And unless there’s a rookie that the Browns love in the upcoming draft, getting past the 2025 season with a minimum-salary Cousins is the best way to do it while still being competitive on the field.
Pulling it all together wouldn’t be easy. But when it comes to the Browns and Kirk Cousins, what has been lately?
