The NFL offseason is now starting in earnest after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl and teams in need of a quarterback like the Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders, Minnesota Vikings or Houston Texans may look to trades like Kirk Cousins or Ryan Mallett over going to the free agent market, as the roster is not that deep with names like Michael Vick and Josh Freeman available.
According to Pro Football Talk, Cousins is a player that is likely to get traded, as new head coach Jay Gruden has named Robert Griffin III the undisputed starter and that could find a number of teams exploring a trade. The report writes that Cousins has said he wouldn't mind being traded to a team where he would have the chance to start, but the backup later came out and said he has not asked the team to trade him. Even if he didn't ask, it makes sense for the team to explore a deal, as Gruden likely would want to bring in his own backup and on top of that, the Redskins could use the draft pick after having to deal away the number two pick to the Rams after the RG3 trade.
John Clayton from ESPN.com writes that both quarterbacks likely would cost a second or third round pick and in the grand scheme of things, that is not a lot to give up if a team feels Cousins or Mallett could be a starter. Cousins has shown that he can handle playing in this league after appearing in a number of games over the past two seasons, while Mallett has served as the backup for Tom Brady on the Patriots and has not had too many chances to play yet. The 25 year old Cousins is about to be in his third year in the NFL and teams like the Raiders, Texans and Browns could fit, as all are looking at quarterbacks and they may want to use their top 10 picks elsewhere.
The Redskins would love to snag some extra draft picks and teams could be motivated to trade for Cousins since he is making just $570,000 and $650,000 over the next two seasons and he would be a bargain. Bill Belichick has held onto Mallett for those same reasons and after reports came up earlier last season that the Browns could trade for Mallett, those have come up again and after the way Brandon Weeden played, the team is ready to start over at the position again. Last season Cousins passed for 854 yards with four touchdowns with seven interceptions and he started the final four games for the team after Griffin was shutdown. The team went 3-13 last season and they now are starting over basically at a number of positions and getting a draft pick for Cousins could be hugely valuable.
The Raiders had Matt McGloin and Terrelle Pryor at QB last season and that didn't work out as expected and now they could explore a trade for the second year in a row after dealing for Matt Flynn. More on this as it comes.
