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The 2025 NFL Draft will be a big deal for the Tennessee Titans. And they need to stay out of the quarterback business with their first pick. So before the draft, the Titans must complete this perfect trade in the offseason.
First, the Titans don’t have a quality NFL quarterback in Will Levis. Perhaps he’s not even good enough to stick around as a backup. But here is how the Titans could solve their quarterback problem while also building for the future.
Of course, other NFL teams will have to cooperate for this to work. But this is the best scenario for the organization to pursue.
Titans should trade for QB Kirk Cousins
Let’s set the record straight. Tennessee wouldn’t make this deal and expect Cousins to lead the team to the Super Bowl. The Falcons found out that won’t work, just like the Vikings and Commanders in years before.
But what Cousins can bring to the team is stability in the early part of the season. With a reasonably solid veteran behind center, the Titans could hover around the .500 mark toward the halfway point.
Then, they could insert a player who forms the second part of this plan. The Titans should draft cornerback-receiver Travis Hunter with the first overall pick before selecting quarterback Jaxson Dart in the second round. Then they have Cousins to get things started with Dart trying to show his chops in the latter stages of the 2025 season.
Cousins going to the Titans in a trade got a nod from Pro Football Focus. However, PFF noted the obstacles.
“Cousins still holds significant contract costs and a no-trade clause to boot,” PFF wrote. “This would likely limit the number of teams that could feasibly take on his contract. He’s still due $155 million over the next three seasons. There is the possibility that Atlanta could agree to eat a portion of his contract to facilitate a deal, but much remains to be seen regarding that possibility.
“Being traded to the team with the worst record in the NFL last season may seem like a clear-cut opportunity for Cousins to exercise his no-trade clause. The AFC South continues to profile as a fairly winnable division, which may appeal to Cousins, who will be 37 years old come August.”
Still, the Falcons ended their good relationship with Cousins the minute they installed Michael Penix Jr. as the starter, according to espn.com.
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“(Cousin’s future in Atlanta is) effectively over,” Jeremy Fowler said. “Hard to see a scenario in which the team turns to Cousins in 2025. The Falcons made clear in their statement that Penix is the quarterback “moving forward.” Translation: We aren't looking back.”
As for Cousins, he said he still wants to play in the NFL, according to nfl.com.
“I definitely feel like I have a lot of good football left in me,” Cousins said. “Time will tell. It's still kind of uncertain. We'll get to March and know a lot more. But I think the focus for me really is getting healthy. That's really my focus is I gotta get healthy.
“I'm no good to the Falcons. I'm no good to a team if I'm not feeling really good. That's really where my focus has been through January and February now that the season has wound down, really taking all the time I can to get my body feeling really good.”
Cousins said his Achilles healed well, but other things held him back in 2024.
“I think there was a little bit of just trying to get my right ankle back around the Achilles, but the Achilles itself healed really well,” Cousins told GMFB: OT. “Even then, we were 6-3, was playing well, doing a lot of good things, even if the right ankle wasn't perfect. Nobody's perfect in this league. We're never feeling 100 percent. So it didn't really affect me too much, but then against the Saints (in Week 10), I got hit pretty good in my right shoulder and elbow. From there, kinda dealing with that, it was something I was working through. Just never could get it really to where I wanted it.
“Now that the season's over, you have the time and the energy to say, OK, let's get the right ankle back. Let's get the shoulder back. (And) let's get the elbow back. And if we can do that, (I) feel like I got a new life ahead of me in pro football.”
The Titans are coming off a rather disastrous 3-14 season. They will enter 2025 with a six-game losing streak. It makes a lot of sense for the organization to do the necessary things to put a more competitive product on the field this coming season. They need to energize the fan base. This is especially true for a smaller-market franchise.
Again, Cousins isn't going to set the Titans' world on fire. But he can keep the team in games that otherwise might turn into blowouts. They can't afford another season of Will Levis.
