Kirk Cousins can laugh at the Panthers now after recent trade

The Carolina Panthers are probably no longer laughing about rumored trade interest in Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins after Wednesday.

Back in March, rumors were swirling about what the Minnesota Vikings were planning to do with veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins. With a new regime in charge, some wondered if the Vikings were going to start fresh under center, and trade Cousins to another team.

Before the veteran passer ended up signing an extension with Minnesota, the Carolina Panthers were involved in a rumor that linked them to potentially having interest in making a deal for Cousins.

When the Panthers eventually got word of this rumor, they reportedly laughed about the idea of them having any interest in trading for the Vikings quarterback. Looking back, Carolina probably wishes they had another shot to reconsider making a deal for Cousins.

Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins gets the last laugh after the Carolina Panthers trade for Baker Mayfield

After months of speculation, the Panthers finally completed a trade on Wednesday to acquire quarterback Baker Mayfield from the Cleveland Browns. In exchange for Mayfield, Carolina sent the Browns a conditional 2024 fifth-round draft pick.

While the price to acquire the polarizing signal-caller turned out to not be too steep, the Panthers now have a quarterback room that includes Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and rookie Matt Corral, who the team spent a third-round pick on during this year’s NFL Draft.

After failing to lead the team to more than five wins in each of his first two years with the franchise, Carolina head coach Matt Rhule is heading into the 2022 season with his job on the line. Perhaps Mayfield can help the Panthers improve, but Rhule’s chances of sticking around past the 2022 campaign might’ve been better if his team traded for Cousins instead.

Would Cousins lead Carolina to the Super Bowl? Probably not, but he might have helped the Panthers achieve a level of success that would have allowed them to keep the same coaching staff around past the 2022 season.

Instead, Carolina just traded for a quarterback that people in their organization have criticized in the recent past (see Robby Anderson and Ben McAdoo). Mayfield isn’t one to keep quiet either, so if there ends up being disfunction within the Panthers organization next season, the young quarterback is going to let the rest of the world hear about it.

While the idea of trading for Cousins might have seemed humorous to Carolina back in March, no one from the Panthers is going to be laughing if Mayfield is unable to do enough in 2022 to save everyone’s jobs.