Cleveland Browns fans now think their team is going to land Kirk Cousins from the Atlanta Falcons this offseason after the former Minnesota Vikings quarterback was spotted on Thursday at multiple locations not too far from where the Browns hold their practices in Berea, Ohio.
The first sighting of Cousins was revealed on Thursday after a user on X shared a photo of the veteran quarterback at a Chipotle in Westlake, Ohio. A little later in the day, another user on X shared a photo of Cousins at City Barbeque in Avon, Ohio.
Some have already speculated that Cleveland could be a potential landing spot for Cousins this year due to his history with Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski when the two worked together in Minnesota in 2018 and 2019. That speculation is only going to grow from the photos of the former Vikings quarterback that were shared online on Thursday.
Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons working out a trade for former Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins makes too much sense
Regardless of whether or not Cousins was in town for something related to the Browns on Thursday, good luck preventing Cleveland fans from assuming that's exactly why he was there.
Stefanski is in the middle of his sixth year as the Browns' head coach, and the team is coming off a miserable 2024 campaign that saw them finish with a 3-14 record.
Cleveland's decision to make a gigantic investment in quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2022 hasn't even come close to producing the success they thought it would, and now it seems like the team is in search of a new starting signal-caller.
Watson is currently in the middle of recovering from an Achilles tear, and his status for the 2025 season is up in the air. The only other quarterback on the Browns' current roster is Kenny Pickett, who the team acquired in a recent trade with the Philadelphia Eagles.
It seems highly unlikely that Stefanski will want to roll into next season with Pickett as Cleveland's starting quarterback, so that's where Cousins would come in.
It's been made pretty clear that Cousins wants out of Atlanta after they benched him for Michael Penix Jr. last season. The Falcons have also attempted to convince everyone that they're fine with keeping Cousins and his 2025 cap hit of $40 million around as a backup, but no one really believes they're telling the truth.
At 36-years-old, Cousins likely just wants to play for a coach that he's familiar with and run an offense that he's had success with in the past. The Browns meet both of those qualifications.
Now, it's been reported recently that Cousins would like Atlanta to wait until after the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft to trade him so that he can avoid landing with a team that drafts a quarterback this year. So if Cleveland decides to use one of its top 2025 draft picks on a young signal-caller, then the former Minnesota passer will likely want to play elsewhere.
Until that actually happens, though, it seems safe to say that the Browns are one of the teams that Cousins is currently interested in playing for next season. At least that's what everyone is going to assume after he was hanging out near Cleveland on Thursday.