Free agency has been extremely quiet for the Cleveland Browns and the front office. Since signing an extension with Myles Garrett, the team has also just re-signed Devin Bush and signed Cornelius Lucas to short term, cheap deals. They lost Mike Ford and James Hudson III, as well. And, that sums up their entire free agency.
On the trade front, the team did send Dorian Thompson-Robinson over to the Philadelphia Eagles along with a 5th round pick to get Kenny Pickett, who you should want as your QB3 in the Browns' quarterback room. The plan, as has been telegraphed for months, has been to secure a veteran starter who acts as a bridge to whichever rookie the team takes in the NFL draft.
The veteran that has been consistently connected to Cleveland because of the tie to head coach Kevin Stefanski is Kirk Cousins. Only issue with that is that Cousins is still under contract with the Atlanta Falcons, and hasn't been cut by the team nor been shopped by them on the trade market.
And, with a recent report from one NFL reporter, it seems like the Falcons are more than happy to keep Cousins on their roster and completely foil the Browns' plan at quarterback.
NFL reporter suggests bad news for Browns' QB plans
Charles Robinson, a senior NFL reporter for Yahoo Sports, posted to social media on Wednesday to say he doesn't feel as good as he did previously about the chances of Cousins being cut by Atlanta outright before Sunday. Sunday is the deadline to release him from the team before he's owed $10 million in guaranteed salary.
This is horrible news if true for the Browns for one reason: they very likely don't want to have to engage in trade talks with Atlanta, who will hold all the leverage in any discussions around Cousins this offseason. Cleveland's the desperate party here, with the only quarterback rostered being Kenny Pickett. Obviously, they need to pull the trigger on someone soon.
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If they could sign him outright, they could likely do so without overpaying for the 36 year old signal caller who is very immobile in the pocket and a huge gamble as a starter headed into 2025. If they go for him in a trade, it's even riskier. You're giving up likely valuable assets and players for a 50-50 shot at an OK veteran in the pocket. For that, they could just re-sign Jameis Winston.
Cousins shouldn't be the team's be all, end all plan at quarterback headed into the new season. We also don't know if that's the real plan to begin with - we're just going off of reporting shared from those covering the team who seem to know what the Browns' braintrust is thinking. Hopefully, if Cousins is only available via trade, the team doesn't blink. It's just not worth it.