A little over a month ago, when Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry addressed the status of quarterback Deshaun Watson, he focused his assessment on his player’s health. Watson had been lost this season to a torn Achilles, and the first priority was the quarterback’s health and recovery. After that?
“Everything else we’ll deal with later,” Berry said.
This later moment, as well as 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 collapsed — taking the Browns’ 2024 season with him — the Browns could be presented with a realistic bridge out of the Watson era. And it could come from the very team that Cleveland outbid to acquire in 2022.
Enter the Atlanta Falcons and quarterback Kirk Cousins now on the bench.
As crazy as it sounds, if the Browns are serious about competing with 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 is not available. So there are some moving parts here to consider. Let’s go through the logic, starting with…
Michael Penix Jr. is playing well enough to make Kirk Cousins an afterthought
Everyone is already writing Cousins out of the Falcons storyline for good, but there is one very important step that must come first. Simply put, Penix needs to both stay healthy and play well enough to show that Cousins was definitely the problem over the final five weeks of the season. Because the simple truth is that it was not the whole problem in the first nine games of the season, when the Falcons went 6-3 and Cousins’ touchdown-to-interception ratio was 17 to 7. Was it perfect? No, but it was impossible to expect him to be benched five games later.
Something has clearly changed over the last five games, leading Cousins to make some inexplicable decisions with the football and completely lose the trust of Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. It is rare for such a total collapse to occur for no discernible reason. Yet we are led to believe that this is what is happening in Atlanta. If so, 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 forces release after season
He may have handled his demotion with class, but Cousins doesn’t have to do the Falcons any favors by facilitating a trade. Not long ago, Atlanta made a business decision to select Penix without alerting Cousins of the decision until they were in the draft. He can now make the commercial decision to force himself to act freely. And all he has to do for that to happen is sit tight until the Falcons are squeezed until March 16, 2025 – when a $10 million salary guarantee for 2026 will be triggered if Cousins is still on the roster.
Atlanta already has to pay $27.5 million in salary for 2025. It doesn’t make sense to add another $10 million. After making a few calls to understand where this is going, I think an exit is the exact scenario that will play out in March, provided Penix shows he’s ready to take over. After that, the next step for a Cousins and Browns union would be…
Browns reach conclusion Watson should not continue as undisputed starter
Looking back at that Berry press conference in November, Watson’s message seemed pretty clear. The Cleveland braintrust will not be enough Nothing and fingers crossed everything suddenly changes with Watson in 2025. From what I’ve been told, the Browns have a plan to remedy the situation and it will become very evident this offseason. First and foremost, they can’t cut it. As topics go, debating Watson’s release was a waste of oxygen from the start. Such a move would generate a cap hit of $172.7 million in 2025.
Even if he were designated as released after June 1 (spreading the damage over two years), Cleveland would still take a $118.9 million loss in 2025. That means no matter how you cut Watson, you will also have to halve the amount of his release. team just to absorb the cap problem. Okay, so it won’t be cut. This does not mean that he must continue to play the role of the team’s starter. The cost is the cost. It’s cooked no matter what. But football must be weighed on its own. Watson should be informed that the starting job will be a competition, beginning in the offseason. After that…
Sign Cousins on a veteran minimum contract and sell the Browns as a playoff team with him at QB
Honestly, this is the hardest 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 were brutally honest, they would admit that 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 create a very awkward quarterback room. Second, because this iteration of the Browns arguably isn’t as good as the 2023 team that made 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 teams in need of a quarterback (assuming they each bring in a rookie), there will likely be other obvious transition opportunities . This fits perfectly with the Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts, who could be looking for a veteran starter this offseason to challenge Will Levis and Anthony Richardson, respectively. But it could also include the New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. Other potential landing spots are big unknowns at the moment. So is the question of what coaching staffs and front offices still view Cousins as starting material, or whether he fits their scheme or playing environment.
That’s a lot of variables for a Cousins union to happen for the Browns. But it’s a worthwhile pursuit at this point. Especially if you think his five-game implosion isn’t a permanent step toward a talent cliff. Somehow, Cleveland has to find a way to spend the remaining years closing the Watson deal. And unless there’s a rookie 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 remaining competitive on the field.
Putting it all together wouldn’t be easy. But when it comes to the Browns and Kirk Cousins, what has been going on lately?
