Cardinals Among Three Other Teams That Had Interest In Kirk Cousins

According to Dianna Russini, the Cardinals were one of a few other teams that had interest in QB Kirk Cousins before he signed with the Raiders today. 

The other teams she mentioned were the Rams and Packers, both of which came up at the owners meetings earlier this week. Los Angeles and Green Bay had coaches who’d worked with Cousins in the past and had expressed interest in bringing him on as a backup. 

On the surface, Arizona would have presented Cousins with his best chance of playing out of all four teams. The Cardinals have Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew on the depth chart and Cousins is more accomplished than both. 

However, it’s telling that he chose to sign with the Raiders even though they are almost certainly drafting Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza No. 1 overall. First-round quarterbacks tend to play sooner rather than later, but multiple key Raiders decision-makers have expressed a preference not to rush a rookie into the lineup if they can help it. 

Cousins worked with Raiders HC Klint Kubiak in Minnesota, so there’s a pre-existing relationship there as well. 

Cousins, 37, is a former fourth-round pick of Washington back in 2012. He played out the final year of his rookie contract before being franchised in back-to-back seasons. 

Cousins later departed in free agency for a three-year, $84 million contract with the Vikings. He was entering the final year of his contract in 2020 when he agreed to a two-year, $66 million contract extension. In 2021, he agreed to a new one-year, $35 million contract extension that was also fully guaranteed.

He was in the final year of that deal in 2023 and was testing the market as an unrestricted free agent in 2024 when he signed with the Falcons. He inked a four-year, $180 million contract with $100 million in guaranteed money. 

Atlanta released him after two seasons. 

In 2025, Cousins appeared in 10 games for the Falcons, starting eight, and completed 61.7 percent of his passes for 1,721 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions.

We’ll have more on the Cardinals’ quarterback situation as the news is available.