The Cleveland Browns would have loved to see their franchise quarterback start all 17 regular season games for them in 2024. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen due to Deshaun Watson suffering a torn Achilles tendon, limiting him to just seven games. The Browns wentjust 1-6 in Watson’s starts.
Once Watson was injured, the Browns were forced to turn to Jameis Winston and Dorian Thompson-Robinson as their starting quarterbacks. Winston led the team to a 2-5 record before being pulled for DTR who went 0-2. Even Bailey Zappe started a game, but ended up losing too.
All together, the Browns finished at 3-14, tying for the worst record in the NFL, earning them the second overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Yet, Watson recently re-tore his Achilles, Winston is set for unrestricted free agency, Zappe will be a restricted free agent, which leaves Thompson-Robinson as the only QB on the Browns’ roster right now.
Naturally, the Browns are expected to add one, two, possibly even three more quarterbacks to the roster over the course of the offseason, but there’s one veteran they’ve been heavily linked to early on.
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Cleveland Browns heavily linked to Kirk Cousins
One player who could become an option for the Cleveland Browns is Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. Signed to a four-year, $180 million contract last offseason, the Falcons benched Cousins after leading the NFL with 16 interceptions while leading a 7-7 record. They turned to first-round rookie Michael Penix Jr for the team’s final three games of the season and he’s expected to resume full-time starting duties in 2025.
With Penix as the clear future in Atlanta, the Falcons are fully expected to move on from Cousins, the four-time Pro Bowl QB will need to find a new team, and the Browns are already being linked to the 36-year-old veteran.
The latest comes from Sports Illustrated’s NFL insider Albert Breer who touches on the history between Cousins and coach Stefanski.
“So, as was the case with Russell Wilson last year, someone is probably getting Cousins for next to nothing, and that’s another reason to connect him to Cleveland, where the Browns are working around the fully guaranteed money left ($92 million over two years) on Deshaun Watson’s contract. Add to that Cousins’s connection to Kevin Stefanski, and you can see why so many are connecting the dots between the two sides here.
Of course, the Browns are going to have determined whether or not Cousins’s downturn last year was simply of an older player coming back off the Achilles or a quarterback failing off a cliff. And if they do make the plunge on Cousins, I’d guess they still draft one.”
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski spent two seasons with Cousins on the Minnesota Vikings, serving as the QB coach for one season and his offensive coordinator for two. Now, the two could reunite in Cleveland.
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