Kirk to Pittsburgh? Trade Cousins?

Pitts Oline is horrible, would probably be a worse fit than when we signed Kirk in 2018. Im not really sure who else who make the move. Panthers and Colts arent going to do that again after the both of there fiascos. Thats why its a shame this shouldve been done last year at 1-6 we could already been a year into this. Go through the list of teams I dont really see an option besides Browns or Broncos that I would make the move.  But I do agree there are lots of ways around it and it could even turn into an Osweiler type trade (no im not comparing Kirk to Osweiler)

The Alex Smith trade was for a 3rd and two cheap years of CB Kendall Fuller, who was a decent starting CB for Washington and was also an average starter on their defense in their SB run. I would take a 3rd rounder and a decent defensive starter for Kirk, if they're taking on his full $35M guaranteed.

Now that we have KAM, maybe he will do some business with the Browns and reunite Cousins and Stefanski?

Only if Stefanski wants to get fired for a .500 record after trading for a .500 WB who eats up the salary cap.

This would make a ton of sense for the Browns.  They don't have a QB centric culture, so Cousins could be just another guy on the team while being worth probably +10 TDs, +40 pass yards per game and -5 int to them.  Looking at the Browns close losses an screw up games, that could be worth as much as 4-5 wins for them.  

However Baker hasn't looked more than Ok since his rookie season - and that was with a pretty friendly system in terms of O Line and running game support.  If he faces higher pressure here Mayfield seems likely to fall apart.  Mayfield took 43 sacks vs. Cousins 28; and those 15 extra sacks came on 143 fewer pass attempts and a lower rate of pressure allowed.  If Mayfield were QB for the Vikings in 2021, I think we'd probably win 4 games (I'd flip wins vs. the Panthers, Chargers, Packers and Steelers to losses).   

It would take a lot of draft capital to balance that out.

Cousins didn't play great... however Mayfield's best game against the Steelers was a 10 point outburst with:
225 Yards
0 TD
0 Int
4 Sacks

Cousins opened the scoring vs the Steelers with a TD and the Vikings had a 23-0 lead at Halftime. In crunch time, Cousins completed a 3rd & 9 to ice the game, Mayfield sealed both losses with a string of incompletions or interceptions.  I'll take Cousins flawed game vs the Steelers over either of Mayfield's.

TJ Watt missing basically the entire game vs the Vikings did make things a lot easier for our passing game, which is something Baker didn't get the privilege of - Watt recorded 5.5 sacks in his 2 games vs the Browns.

Yeah, I'd take Cousins' bad game over Baker's, but I still think we win that one with Mayfield.




Don't get me wrong, even Baker on a rebound is inferior to Kirk. It'd just depend what draft capital we're getting in return for eating all of Baker's guaranteed money. If we're going to take a step back in 2022, might as well get as many draft picks as possible and have a high spot in the 2023 draft.