Browns Linked to $180 Million QB to Succeed Deshaun Watson
The Cleveland Browns' season is essentially over at 2-8 with the red hot Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town for a "Thursday Night Football" showdown a few days from now, which means the team can begin to turn its attention from the nightmare that has been 2024 to what is simply the potential nightmare of 2025.
The very real notion of a dystopian future in Cleveland begins with the $230 million contract of quarterback Deshaun Watson, which is fully guaranteed and carries salary cap hits of $73 million in each of the next two years.
The Browns won't be able to trade Watson's contract, so they must figure out a way to secure a replacement at a reasonable cost in order to get back into the playoff mix, as Watson has proven both the inability to stay healthy and the inability to play well when he is on the field over his three-year stint with the franchise.
One way to accomplish that is to draft a rookie QB next April. Were the draft held today, Cleveland would own the third overall pick, which would put the team in prime position to select one of the top signal callers available.
That said, the talent at the top of the position in 2025 is relatively suspect compared to other drafts, and the salary of a QB taken outside of the top 10 would be considerably more reasonable as compared to one taken inside the top 3. That second part is specifically pertinent to the Browns given Watson's onerous contract details.
There is also the case of Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders to consider. His father and coach, Deion Sanders, has said he will privately step in and intervene with any franchise he doesn't deem worthy, should that organization attempt to draft his son. There has been no overt indication that Cleveland is on that list of teams, but the Browns' history of struggles at quarterback -- and simply to win consistently in general -- doesn't bode well for Cleveland in this regard.
As such, it may make sense for the Browns to look to free agency or the trade market come next spring, and one Cleveland-centric cap specialist suggested that a deal for $180 million quarterback Kirk Cousins of the Atlanta Falcons is actually feasible.
Cousins #Browns 2025 👀
- Falcons trade him to play Penix
- Waives no trade due to Stefanski relationship
- $27.5m cash, $6.5m cap
- Starter 2025, Bridge 2026
- Playoff team in 2025 pic.twitter.com/Gh6Xei9KOQ— Jack Duffin (@JackDuffin) November 17, 2024
"Cousins #Browns 2025 ," Jack Duffin of the Orange and Brown Report posted to X on Sunday, Nov. 17. "Falcons trade him to play [Michael] Penix. [He] waives no trade due to [Kevin] Stefanski relationship. [The cost is] $27.5m cash, $6.5m cap. Starter 2025, bridge 2026. Playoff team in 2025."
Cousins' deal in Atlanta is worth $180 million over four years, though only $100 million in total is guaranteed. If the team can work his cap hit down to just $6.5 million in 2025 as Duffin suggests, that would be very similar to the salary that No. 10 overall pick J.J. McCarthy is earning for his rookie campaign with the Minnesota Vikings.
Cousins worked with Stefanski when the two served as QB and quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator for the Vikings in 2018 and 2019, and Cousins earned Pro Bowl honors in the second of those two campaigns.
He remains a quality NFL signal caller even at the age of 36. Cousins has tallied 2,807 passing yards, 17 TDs and 9 INTs in Atlanta this season and has a record of 6-5 as the Falcons' starter.
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