Top 3 Landing Spots For Kirk Cousins In 2024

It looks like the Minnesota Vikings are looking to initiate a rebuild of sorts as they prepare for the 2024 season. Their former franchise quarterback Kirk Cousins is willing to test the free agent market and with the free agency period fast approaching, there is a market for Cousins services. The Vikings front office still is holding out hope that they can bring back the six-year quarterback but reports have surfaced that Cousins’ next deal won’t be a fully guaranteed one.

In his six seasons with the team, Cousins has thrown for over 23,000 yards and has a touchdown to interception ratio of 171 to 55. Despite not having the success in the postseason as he would like, with just one postseason win in 2019, Cousins is still one of the best passers in the game at the age of 35. With quarterbacks lasting a bit longer than they have in the past, Cousins could help quite a few teams that are looking for a quarterback that can either get their team back into playoff contention or get them deeper into the playoffs. And of course, there are the all-important fantasy football implications that sweeten the deal. Three teams stand out as prime landing spots for Kirk Cousins in 2024 that would fit the bill for boosting these squads in the aforementioned areas.

Atlanta Falcons

This should be a no-brainer. The Atlanta Falcons have given time to young quarterback Desmond Ridder but so far it hasn’t panned out. Ridder has just two seasons in the league as he didn’t start in his rookie season with the Falcons allowing Marcus Mariota (whoever thought that was a good idea) to get the starting job. Ridder didn’t exactly “leap” in 2023 either as he threw for just over 2,800 yards and went 12:12 in TD to INT ratio. The Falcons have wiped the slate clean from the short stint of Arthur Smith as head coach to Raheem Morris which means that Morris could opt to add his own handpicked quarterback. But what makes Cousins a good fit for the Falcons?

Starting with the upcoming NFL draft, the Falcons hold the eighth overall pick in the first round. With only a handful of teams likely to take a quarterback in front of them, namely CHI (if they end up moving on from Justin Fields), WAS (2nd overall), NE (3rd overall), and maybe NYG (6th overall) there should still be plenty of quarterbacks to chose from if the Falcons decide to stand pat. If they opt to move up, they could grab one of the top QB prospects coming out of the draft. Adding Cousins to the team would allow the Falcons to be competitive in a wide-open NFC South while allowing their young quarterback selection to learn the game and get up to NFL speed without having to rush him. The Falcons also have a tri of talented skill position players in Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and Bijan Robinson that would allow the Falcons to put up much more of a fight for a playoff berth.

Plus, all those players I mentioned would be drafted at a much higher ADP than their previous years (outside of Bijan Robinson, who would likely jump into a much higher first-round draft prospect).

Pittsburgh Steelers

I’m having a hard time buying what the Steelers are selling as far as reports stating that the organization isn’t interested in checking on the free-agent quarterback market. If we’re being honest, the Steelers could be right back in the mix of things in the AFC North if they added a quarterback. Kenny Pickett has shown some glimmers in his last couple of seasons but nothing Pickett has put on film says he’s the answer long-term. While Pickett’s QB record is 14-10 over the last two seasons, a closer look says that it has more to do with the pieces around Pickett as opposed to his NFL skill. Pickett has thrown for under 2,500 yards in both of his starting seasons and hasn’t cracked double-digit touchdowns in either season while passing for under 65% completion percentage. In a division with the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, and Cleveland Browns, that’s not enough to get into the playoffs unless something dire happens.

Cousins would fit well with the Steelers with George Pickens as his top target and Pat Frieremuth at the tight end position. There are rumors that fellow Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson could be on the trade block but should he stick around, that’s another good weapon that would benefit from having an upgrade at the quarterback spot. The addition of Cousins would also help back off defenders from the line of scrimmage, allowing Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren to do more damage out of the backfield. Harris, for example, saw an average of seven defenders in the box on the season, the 11th most among running backs in 2023.

The Steelers don’t pick until the 20th overall selection in the first round and could opt to go in a different direction should they pull the trigger on adding a quarterback during the free-agency period.

Las Vegas Raiders

The Jimmy Garoppolo experiment is over as the team is opting to cut the quarterback this offseason and while rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell filled in as best he could, the Raiders need to make a better move to the quarterback position. The Raiders pick 13th overall in this year’s NFL draft so there may be a few prospects in reach but they will have to contend with a few more teams ahead of them that could grab up some quarterbacks like the Denver Broncos or the Minnesota Vikings. The Raiders would get a “ready to go” QB in Kirk Cousins and a defense that finished ninth overall in 2023 would give the team some draft flexibility to either add to their team in other areas. It could also claim the rumored “upset” wide receiver in Davante Adams, who’s been rumored to want out of Las Vegas. Cousins is a much better quarterback than Garoppolo and may allow Adams to buy back into the new direction of the team.

The Raiders do have Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers as their top two wide receivers and, at least for now, Zamir White could be the running back to get the starting job with Josh Jacobs expected to hit free agency this offseason. The Raiders passing offense ranked 23rd overall in 2023, barely cracking 3,000 passing yards and just 20 touchdowns on the season to go along with 18 interceptions. Cousins in his last three healthy seasons averaged just over 4,300 yards a season with a 32:11 touchdown to interception ratio.

For Fantasy…

The common theme for all three of these teams if they elect to add Kirk Cousins at quarterback, could allow their respective skill positions to thrive. For example, while Davante Adams was still a top 10 drafted wide receiver during the 2023 fantasy draft season, Adams ended up finishing the season as the WR15 in FPPG at 15.6. Another example, Drake London was being taken as the WR24 in PPR formats and finished 20 spots lower because of the poor passing game in the A. Even if you don’t think Cousins is a good quarterback, he’s certainly good for fantasy football. Under Cousins, Justin Jefferson finished as the WR6 or better. While comparing Jetta to other wide receivers would be like comparing a sports car to a model plane, the fact remains that Cousins would certainly improve the wide receiver stock no matter where he lands.