Would the Dolphins Ever Consider Cousins?

A national media member predicted the Miami Dolphins would sign veteran QB Kirk Cousins in the offseason and he would take over as the starter at some point in 2025

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) receives the snap against the Miami Dolphins during the second half at Hard Rock Stadium in a 2022 game. | Rich Storry-Imagn Images

Kirk Cousins very well could find himself with a new team in 2025, but is there any chance that team could be the Miami Dolphins?

There's at least one national writer who thinks that's a possibility, and Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated goes as far as to predict it will happen.

In a column featuring one bold prediction for each team in the NFL, Orr not only has Cousins signing with the Dolphins but more.

"The Dolphins will sign Kirk Cousins, and he’ll eventually wrest the starting job away from Tua Tagovailoa during the 2025 season," Orr wrote. "Cousins is a coveted asset among the Shanahan-ites for his decisiveness and processing skills. Much like Aaron Rodgers coming off the broken thumb finale in Green Bay, Cousins is a bit of a distressed asset who, in my opinion, still has some good football ahead of him. Unlike the Falcons, Mike McDaniel and the Dolphins can find a way to work him into the dynamic run game."

THE COST FOR COUSINS

Cousins is coming off a disastrous first season with the Atlanta Falcons, who made the strange move of giving him a big contract before then taking fellow quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 draft.

With Cousins struggling after coming back from an Achilles injury — he said he was dealing with a shoulder injury before he was benched — and Penix showing promise, the Falcons widely are expected to go with Penix in 2025 and move on from Cousins.

Cousins has a $27.5 million guaranteed salary in 2025 and the chances of any other team around the league being willing to pick that up after what happened last season are slim. But Cousins will become a cheap option at quarterback if the Falcons decide to cut ties with him, which would cost them $65 million against the cap before June 1 or $40 million if they made him a post-June 1 release.

The situation is similar to what happened last year with Russell Wilson, who signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the veteran minimum because the Denver Broncos were on the hook for his guaranteed money after they released him.

ARE THE DOLPHINS AND COUSINS A GOOD MATCH?

Even the Falcons do end up releasing Cousins, he would make a lot of sense for the Dolphins as a backup for Tua Tagovailoa because he would represent a major upgrade over Skylar Thompson, Tyler Huntley and Tim Boyle, who all handled the role in 2024.

But there are two key questions here:

1) Would Cousins be content with being a backup or seek a different opportunity to be a starter? After the Super Bowl, it could be argued the following teams have unsettled starting quarterback situations: New York Jets, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis (maybe), Tennessee, Las Vegas, New York Giants, New Orleans (maybe), and L.A. Rams (if Matthew Stafford gets traded).

While other veterans and incoming rookies (Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders) will take some of those jobs, it's not a stretch to suggest Cousins should be able to land a starting gig somewhere and one would think that would be a priority for him.

2) Would the Dolphins want a longtime starter as their backup?

Let's be honest, it simply hasn't been the Dolphins' M.O. — for whatever reason — to have a backup quarterback who previously was a full-time starter, and Cousins has started every game he has played since 2014.

Teddy Bridgewater had a lot of starting experience when the Dolphins signed him to be Tagovailoa's backup in 2022, but he didn't have Cousins' resume and didn't necessarily have a lot of other options at the time.

The Dolphins have been fully committed to Tagovailoa since Mike McDaniel arrived as head coach three years ago and nothing has changed, particularly after they signed him to a lucrative extension last summer, so there might be some uneasiness to bringing in someone with Cousins' credentials — he has four seasons with a passer rating over 100 in the past six years, and his career passer rating of 97.4 is almost identical to Tua's 97.9 — as a true backup.

Given those dynamics, we'd still consider it a surprise if Cousins ended up in Miami, but adding him certainly would provide more a comfort level heading into 2025 as insurance in case of another Tua injury.