Everyone understood the Cleveland Browns were going to add a veteran quarterback at some point. Everyone understood the club wanted a quarterback that coach Kevin Stefanski was comfortable with and had confidence in, and the vacancy made all the sense in the world for Kirk Cousins.

But nope.

Joe Flacco.

Flacco To Run It Back With Browns

Flacco is filling the spot after the team announced early Friday that he had agreed to terms on a contract. Flacco will sign a one-year deal worth a reported $4 million. ESPN was first to report the contract details.

And that leaves Cousins in a bit of a bind because there is now no obvious team that might be interested in him in a trade that could offer him the starting job opportunity he wants.

Cousins is currently on the Atlanta Falcons roster. But he has let the team know he wishes to be traded to another club that would allow him the opportunity to be a starter in 2025. That isn’t going to happen for Cousins in Atlanta because the team is committed to second-year quarterback Michael Penix Jr. as the starter.

So even as the Falcons initially dismissed the idea of a Cousins trade but then opened the door to it a bit at the recent NFL annual meeting, the Browns lurked in the background as a team interested in Cousins.

One league source told OutKick the Browns approached the Falcons about Cousins at least once to weigh the possibility of a trade. Obviously, nothing got done, but it didn’t preclude the teams talking again – particularly since Cousins, for good reasons, wants to wait until after the first day of the draft on April 24 to be traded.

Browns Fill Vet QB Need

But the Browns adding Flacco seemingly fills the same need Cousins might have filled. The team now has flexibility at the position as it goes into the draft.

And now Cousins will probably have to hope a different trade partner emerges for the Falcons if indeed he’s going to get out of Atlanta.

Flacco makes sense for the Browns because, firstly, he comes cheaply. His $4 million salary makes total sense within their cap structure, which includes the huge cost ($35.9 million) of carrying the injured Deshaun Watson for 2025.

And Flacco, who just turned 40, makes sense because he played for Stefanski and the Browns in 2023. The team was 4-1 in the regular-season games he started. The Browns even got into the playoffs that year with Flacco as their late-season starter.

Now Cleveland has added Flacco and Kenny Pickett to the quarterback room to go along with Watson, who is not expected to play early in 2025, if at all.

Cousins Playing For Stefanski Makes Sense

Cousins also made sense in Cleveland, by the way. 

He is nearly four years younger than Flacco and is similarly familiar with Stefanski because the coach was the quarterback’s offensive coordinator in Minnesota in 2019 and the quarterback coach for the Vikings a couple of years before that.

But now a reunion doesn’t make nearly as much sense for the Browns, considering the sizable cap charge a trade for Cousins would add plus the one the club is already taking on with Flacco.

And where does that leave Cousins?

His options are definitely diminishing. 

Steelers, Titans Remain Outside Cousins Possibilities

The Pittsburgh Steelers might be interested if they cannot close a deal with Aaron Rodgers.

And that’s about it.

It’s remotely possible he can go back to Minnesota. He’d probably be able to compete with unproven J.J. McCarthy. But he’d basically find himself in the same situation with McCarthy as what he was in with the Falcons last year in that the Vikings are intent on letting McCarthy be their guy.

The only other team with a somewhat unsettled starting QB situation is the Tennessee Titans. They have Will Levis on the roster and are expected to draft Cam Ward. It would be possible, although improbable, to shoehorn Cousins into that battle.

But Ward will be the guy in Tennessee eventually, if not right away. And that means Cousins won’t.

Bottom line?

The Browns adding Flacco hurts Cousins and his hopes of starting somewhere in 2025.