Cleveland was still never interested in Cousins, per Lloyd
Report: Baker Mayfield Believed Browns Were Going to Trade for Vikings' Kirk CousinsROB GOLDBERG@TheRobGoldberg">MARCH 21, 2022
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski spent two seasons alongside Cousins with the Minnesota Vikings, serving as quarterbacks coach in 2018 and offensive coordinator in 2019.
Cleveland was still never interested in Cousins, per Lloyd. The team intended to pursue Watson and Russell Wilson in the offseason but would otherwise keep Mayfield under center in 2022.
Makes sense. For the asking price the Vikings would want and if you are giving that much up I would hold out for Wilson or Watson too.
Wilson or Watson are going to fill the stands a lot more than KC.
Interesting to me at least that a guy that was Kirk's QB coach and then OC had no interest in trading for Cousins.
so Cousins former position coach/offensive coordinator wasnt interested enough in KC to reach out the Vikings once it was decided to improve on Mayfield? What is that saying? I can see Watson, and possibly Wilson, but to not even have him on their list, or reach out? especially after Wilson went off the board. I mean you would think they would have had a back up plan in place once they pissed baker off in case they couldnt land Watson. I have a hard time believing that they didnt at least look into it.
Take it with a grain of salt. No GM with a functional brain would admit if they had him targeted. I doubt Mayfield was basing his belief on nothing.
With that said, the one team I did hear was interested in Cousins was the Colts. Also heard that the Vikings had no intention of moving him unless they had to.
@"minny65" said: Interesting to me at least that a guy that was Kirk's QB coach and then OC had no interest in trading for Cousins.
Just as interesting that the guy who was also his QB coach is now his head coach and wanted him as his QB.
@"AGRforever" said:@"minny65" said: Interesting to me at least that a guy that was Kirk's QB coach and then OC had no interest in trading for Cousins.Just as interesting that the guy who was also his QB coach is now his head coach and wanted him as his QB.
Yea he did inherit Kirk.
@"AGRforever" said:@"minny65" said: Interesting to me at least that a guy that was Kirk's QB coach and then OC had no interest in trading for Cousins.Just as interesting that the guy who was also his QB coach is now his head coach and wanted him as his QB.
Rumor was that KOC would not have taken the HC job without Kirk :)
Unless the Vikings were willing to absorb a big chunk of Kirk's $45 cap hit, no team was going to take on that money for one year of service. Kirk made it clear he wanted to test free agency again after the 2022 season and wasn't going to sign a long term deal. He got a raise with his new 1 year extension and control over trades which is what the Vikings had to give up to get a deal done with him. With the cap going up significantly, he is betting on himself and wasn't going to give anyone a team friendly deal. Kirk's contract was the barrier for him being moved whether O'Connell wanted him to stay or not. If Dollars were equal, I'm sure Stefanski would much rather have Cousins over Mayfield and it's not even close.
@"TBro" said: Unless the Vikings were willing to absorb a big chunk of Kirk's $45 cap hit, no team was going to take on that money for one year of service. Kirk made it clear he wanted to test free agency again after the 2022 season and wasn't going to sign a long term deal. He got a raise with his new 1 year extension and control over trades which is what the Vikings had to give up to get a deal done with him. With the cap going up significantly, he is betting on himself and wasn't going to give anyone a team friendly deal. Kirk's contract was the barrier for him being moved whether O'Connell wanted him to stay or not. If Dollars were equal, I'm sure Stefanski would much rather have Cousins over Mayfield and it's not even close.so why then wouldnt they have reached out to see what the damage would have been? I think the Vikings should have (and likely did) listened to offers, and paying part of his contract to make the right deal should have been part of it.
@"JimmyinSD" said: so Cousins former position coach/offensive coordinator wasnt interested enough in KC to reach out the Vikings once it was decided to improve on Mayfield? What is that saying? I can see Watson, and possibly Wilson, but to not even have him on their list, or reach out? especially after Wilson went off the board. I mean you would think they would have had a back up plan in place once they pissed baker off in case they couldnt land Watson. I have a hard time believing that they didnt at least look into it.Only the true Kirk believers think he has a lot of value. 2 playoffs in 7 years for the teams he has led. Not all his fault but other GMs look at that and wonder WTF? What it means to other GMs is that they had better have everything, and I mean everything, around him pretty dang good in order to just get in the dance.
He's washed.
Stefanski was around for a couple years of Kirk and knows better than to think that's the guy to take the Browns to the next level. Hardly a big surprise.
@"TBro" said: Unless the Vikings were willing to absorb a big chunk of Kirk's $45 cap hit, no team was going to take on that money for one year of service. Kirk made it clear he wanted to test free agency again after the 2022 season and wasn't going to sign a long term deal. He got a raise with his new 1 year extension and control over trades which is what the Vikings had to give up to get a deal done with him. With the cap going up significantly, he is betting on himself and wasn't going to give anyone a team friendly deal. Kirk's contract was the barrier for him being moved whether O'Connell wanted him to stay or not. If Dollars were equal, I'm sure Stefanski would much rather have Cousins over Mayfield and it's not even close.I am not sure what you mean by dollars were equal? I think Baker was due around 19 million while we were, before renegotiation, 45 million into Kirk?
If I were the Browns with that current roster/window I would clearly want Kirk who is a Top 10 QB consistently. Baker is still a project coming off an injury riddled season.
But it seems from this report, that the Browns didn't even entertain giving up very much for Cousins but were all in on either Wilson or Watson and willing to give up numerous 1st round picks and pay more then Kirk.
My opinion is that the interest in Kirk at the $35 million (we had to absorb 10 of the 45) was not that strong at all. Just my opinion that the market for Kirk's services was not that strong and I don't think it will be better next year when we are on the hook for even more with a dead cap hit of close to 50 million!!
@"minny65" said:@"TBro" said: Unless the Vikings were willing to absorb a big chunk of Kirk's $45 cap hit, no team was going to take on that money for one year of service. Kirk made it clear he wanted to test free agency again after the 2022 season and wasn't going to sign a long term deal. He got a raise with his new 1 year extension and control over trades which is what the Vikings had to give up to get a deal done with him. With the cap going up significantly, he is betting on himself and wasn't going to give anyone a team friendly deal. Kirk's contract was the barrier for him being moved whether O'Connell wanted him to stay or not. If Dollars were equal, I'm sure Stefanski would much rather have Cousins over Mayfield and it's not even close. I am not sure what you mean by dollars were equal? I think Baker was due around 19 million while we were, before renegotiation, 45 million into Kirk?If I were the Browns with that current roster/window I would clearly want Kirk who is a Top 10 QB consistently. Baker is still a project coming off an injury riddled season.
But it seems from this report, that the Browns didn't even entertain giving up very much for Cousins but were all in on either Wilson or Watson and willing to give up numerous 1st round picks and pay more then Kirk.
My opinion is that the interest in Kirk at the $35 million (we had to absorb 10 of the 45) was not that strong at all. Just my opinion that the market for Kirk's services was not that strong and I don't think it will be better next year when we are on the hook for even more with a dead cap hit of close to 50 million!!
I said "If" dollars were equal. They weren't. Also, Kirk wanted to test free agency again and said he didn't want to sign a long term deal unlike Watson who was. He's betting he can be close to Watson money in a couple of years when the cap increases spike up to an estimated $220-$225k when the new TV deals kick in.
If I were Cleveland I wouldn't have traded for Cousins either. I mean what's the point? Cousins might be a 20% improvement over Mayfield. But when you have a chance to acquire a 26-year-old elite-level QB, you back up the Brinks truck and you don't flinch at three 1st rounders. Trying to find that QB in draft, given that Cleveland is a talented team who likely won't be drafting in the top 12 any time soon, is a fools errand. Hell, I would've sent four 1st rounders if that's what it required.
I dont trust LLOYD anymore than the lemming no source fools in Minny media flapping their gums and making up shit with no actual source. actually sounds like almost all media of all kinds at this moment in time.
The Browns were interested in Kirk. The cost of acquisition and extension weren't going to make sense for them. So maybe this could be summarized as they looked into it and it wasn't going to make sense. But it wasn't simply, we won't even ask about Kirk.
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