Trying to figure out the Kirk Cousins conundrum

The Cleveland Browns are on their annual quest to fix the quarterback position. But is Kirk Cousins the answer to the team’s woes?

Let’s get the obvious of the way up front, shall we?

The Cleveland Browns need to fix the quarterback position.

Almost everyone outside of the franchise knows that, and it is probably safe to say that everyone within team headquarters in Berea, save quarterback DeShone Kizer, knows it as well.

The big unanswered question is just how the Browns should go about solving the problem this offseason.

Fortunately for the Browns, the team has numerous options at its disposal. (And how rare is it that anyone can say or write that the Browns are fortunate about anything?)

The most likely path will come in the 2018 NFL Draft, where there will be at least five quarterbacks who will be part of the discussion – Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen and Wyoming’s Josh Allen.

There are pros and cons to each of those quarterbacks, which will all be exposed in the coming months. But the Browns hold selections No. 1 and No. 4 in the first round of the draft, so if they identify a quarterback they like there is absolutely nothing to stand in their way.

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But if the Browns decide that waking a few more years for a rookie quarterback to develop into a consistent winner is just too much to stomach, free agency becomes an option.

Which leads us to Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins, who is one of the most-divisive quarterbacks in the NFL.

Candidly, to borrow a favorite word of Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, we simply do not know what to make of Cousins.

There is no doubting that he has put up the numbers in his time as Washington’s full-time starting quarterback. During the past three seasons, Cousins have averaged 4,392 passing yards, 27 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and, most importantly, completed 67 percent of his passes.

Of course, in today’s NFL, raw passing numbers may not mean as much as they once did. After all, during the same time period Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles has averaged 4,006 passing yards, 26 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, which are not all that different from what Cousins has done in Washington.

Oh, and Bortles has helped lead the Jaguars to a playoff win this season, something that Cousins has not been able to do with the Redskins.

One of the arguments we’ve seen from Browns fans advocating for the Browns to bring Cousins to Cleveland is that he is “better than anyone the Browns have had since 1999.”

There is simply no debating that, but it does raise the question of what is the ultimate goal in all this. Is it to simply be better or is to be a championship contender on a regular basis?

By now, most people understand that “quarterback wins” is pretty meaningless, but it can be hard to look past the fact that in three years with Cousins at quarterback, Washington have gone 9-7, 8-7-1 and 7-9. (How Cousins and former Titans and Rams head coach Jeff Fisher never paired up is a mystery.)

Cousins’ numbers are certainly impressive, but do they ultimately translate into helping a team win games? And that is a very important question for the Browns given the nature of Cousins’ contract situation.

Because they have not been able to work out a long-term deal with Cousins, the Redskins have tagged him the past two seasons, which has driven up his price considerably.

That has left the two sides looking at three potential options this offseason, according to Albert Breer at Monday Morning Quarterback:

• The Redskins can tag Cousins one final time at a cost of $34.4 million
• The Redskins can transition tag Cousins, which would “only” cost them $28.73 million. It would also give the Redskins the right to match any offer that Cousins receives in free agency, but would not require any compensation if Cousins leaves.
• The Redskins can simply let Cousins become an unrestricted free agent and hope for the best.

The Browns, of course, have the cap space to be a major player for Cousins, but that price will be considerable.

When it comes to quarterback it is difficult to really say how much is too much to pay someone. The Chicago Bears gave Mike Glennon $16 million last offseason, and teams keep trading first-round picks and handing out piles of cash to quarterback Sam Bradford, for reasons that are not clear.

But if the Browns are going to invest $25 million to $30 million (or more) to a quarterback, anything less than multiple Super Bowl titles would have to be considered a failure.

Which is why any decision revolving around Cousins is going to be difficult. Is he truly a game-changing quarterback and it was everyone else’s fault the Redskins were not better? Or did he just put up big numbers that ultimately did not matter when the final whistle blew each Sunday?

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It would be easy for general manager John Dorsey to just cut a check and make Cousins the Browns quarterback for the next four to five years. But that would also be irresponsible without asking some hard questions about whether or not Cousins can be the quarterback to take the Browns to the next level.