Insider details how Browns could work out trade for Cousins

Some have suggested the Cleveland Browns aren’t keen on trading for Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins because Cleveland is seemingly hoping to sign a released Cousins to a team-friendly contract. 

On Thursday, Zac Jackson of The Athletic shared how the Browns could work out a trade for Cousins, even though they are stuck with what’s left of the awful Deshaun Watson deal.

“Right now,” Jackson wrote, “Cousins has base salaries of $27.5M for 2025 and $35M for 2026, with cap numbers of $40M for 2025 and $57.5M for 2026. …If the Browns acquired Cousins, they’d work with the Falcons on some sort of salary share and then would likely restructure the remaining contract into a two-year deal with essentially one year of guaranteed money and void years to help spread out the cap hits.”

The exact details of that salary share would determine the draft compensation Atlanta would “buy” (such as a third-round pick) as part of shipping Cousins to Cleveland. Many have assumed he’d want to play for the Browns because he had Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator when the two were with the Minnesota Vikings. Additionally, the Browns may be the only team willing to name Cousins a 2025 Week 1 starter unless the Pittsburgh Steelers strike out in their pursuit of Aaron Rodgers. 

The Browns reportedly could “appeal” to Cousins, who has a full no-trade clause attached to his contract, by selecting either Colorado wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter or Penn State pass-rusher Abdul Carter with the second pick of the 2025 NFL Draft. Cleveland could then use overall selection No. 33 on a quarterback project for the future, such as Ole Miss’s Jaxson Dart or Alabama’s Jalen Milroe. 

Milroe played under Browns offensive coordinator Tommy Rees at Alabama.

Some view Dart as the QB2 of his draft class and think he could go off the board in the first round on April 24. Meanwhile, Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic mentioned on Thursday that “Sanders’ projections seem to range as far as him going in the top 3 to falling all the way to the end of the first round — or maybe even out of it.”

One wonders how Cousins would feel about sharing a quarterback room with a big-name prospect such as Sanders if the Colorado star surprisingly fell to the Browns at pick No. 33.