What Browns-Flacco Deal Says About Possible Kirk Cousins Trade: Insider

It's natural to believe the Cleveland Browns signing veteran quarterback Joe Flacco should put an edge to the possibility of the Browns trading for Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. With Flacco, the Browns have three quarterbacks on their roster.

But that isn't the conclusion Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer came to while analyzing the signing and the Cousins-Browns trade scenario on Monday. Instead, Breer argued the contract the Browns offered Flacco is an indication of what Cleveland wants in a potential trade involving Cousins.

"The Browns willing to pay Flacco $13 million if he starts and performs for them could be a clue that they weren’t willing to go much beyond that to get Cousins," Breer wrote. "The Falcons, I’ve heard, have been tough on the idea that they should take on much of Cousins’s salary to facilitate a trade, not wanting to pay down too much of it to 'buy' a draft pick."

Cleveland signed Flacco to a one-year, $4 million contract Friday. However, the deal includes several incentives that can raise the value of the contract to $13 million.

Most around the league do not consider Cousins and Flacco worth the same on the open market at this point in their careers. But Breer argued the Browns may view the two signal-callers similarly.

"You’d think the Browns would rather have Cousins than Flacco, but my sense is the team views the two similarly. So the number they maxed Flacco out at tells me that the Falcons weren’t going pick up even half of Cousins’s money for 2025 to push a deal through," wrote Breer.

In other words, according to Breer, the Browns were interested in Cousins but for roughly $13 million in 2025. That would mean the Falcons would have to agree to pay half the quarterback's salary this season for the Browns to want to acquire Cousins.

Cousins has a base salary of $27.5 million for the 2025 season.

Signing Flacco doesn't necessarily rule out Cousins as an option for Cleveland because the Browns are only going to pay Flacco $13 million if he earns his incentives. But Breer essentially painted grim hope of a Cousins trade to Cleveland happening if the Falcons don't agree to pay some of the quarterback's salary.

If not Cleveland, Breer argued the best remaining possibility for the Falcons to trade Cousins is the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"I think Cleveland is a lot less likely now, but not completely impossible. The other team I’d pay attention to is the Pittsburgh Steelers, if Aaron Rodgers decides not to go there," Breer wrote. "How he fits there, with the strong personalities in that locker room, and on offense in particular, is a fair question.

"But you don’t have to squint too hard to envision a marriage of convenience between two sides who, once the dust settles on Rodgers, may need each other."

The Falcons need another NFL team to need Cousins. Otherwise, according to Breer, Atlanta might find it very challenging to unload the veteran quarterback without retaining a big portion of his salary.