Slop season is fully underway as we're about three weeks past free agency opening up and as the NFL draft is only one month away. The Cleveland Browns are without a starting quarterback for 2025, so the slop involving them is just continuing to get messier and more frequent.
With no real updates on Russell Wilson's status after the New York Giants pivoted from him in favor of Jameis Winston, and as Aaron Rodgers also continues to hold things up in the AFC North and with the Pittsburgh Steelers, eyes are turning to the Browns as they need to figure out what's going on with their open vacancy at QB.
The draft might not be a viable path for them to take to find a Week 1 starter, but it is one for finding a rookie to properly develop behind a veteran. It's why signing someone like Carson Wentz is legitimately on the table. It's also why trading for Kirk Cousins, head coach Kevin Stefanski's former quarterback, is another option for Cleveland.
However, it doesn't sound like Cousins would want to land somewhere like Cleveland this offseason. That's based on reporting from NFL insider Albert Breer.
Cousins' desired trade conditions might mean Browns are out of competition for him
According to Breer's latest roundup of NFL rumors and news, Cousins is willing to wait until after the NFL draft to waive his no-trade clause with the Atlanta Falcons to land somewhere else as a starter for 2025. That, per Breer, is because Cousins doesn't want to have a rookie like Michael Penix Jr. hovering and waiting for him to slip up, potentially leading to another benching.
"Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, Cousins has already signaled to teams that he would likely want to wait to see what happens over draft weekend before accepting a trade. In a way, that should also work for the teams, allowing them to go through a full draft process—and make decisions on guys such as Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Ole Miss’s Jaxson Dart independent of Cousins’s destination," said Breer in his report.
Read more: NFL insider makes it crystal clear the Browns have a shot at Kirk Cousins
Breer elaborates that Cousins' logic might backfire on him in the long run. If he waits too long, teams like the Browns will have more than enough time to fall in love with a quarterback in the draft and take them as their project starter, and will not even attempt to snag Cousins as their bridge starter.
Cousins' money and eventual cost will be another big factor in a trade. If the Falcons are open to taking on some of his 2025 money in order to make a trade happen, then Cleveland can still be a participant in these sweepstakes for the 37 year old signal caller. A move for Cousins prior to the trade could also indicate that the Browns aren't taking one in the first round, a potential misstep.
There's still four weeks between now and the draft, and Cousins is simply one of several dominoes - older, injury prone dominoes, mind you - left to fall in the quarterback carousel chugging along this offseason.