Albert Breer on Cousins to Vikings, Jaguars Buy Big at Deadline and Chiefs Add Josh Downs

They feel like the team that they have right now is in a championship window.

All right.

Welcome in to the Brew Report for Tuesday night, November 10th.

The trade deadline has come, the trade deadline has gone.

As usual, we talked about 100 names and only a handful of them got traded, but there were some big ones.

Over the last couple of days, and we're gonna cover those right here, right now in the Brewer report.

And that starts with the biggest news of the week, the biggest news of the season, maybe so far because it's such a rare thing that a starting quarterback is traded from one team to another, but that's exactly what happened with the Minnesota Vikings acquiring Kirk Cousins back from the Las Vegas Raiders for a 3rd-round pick.

Now, from the Vikings' perspective, they did have an extra 3rd-round pick as a result of the Jonathan Grenard trade.

Um, that happened, um, draft weekend, and so they trade their own third-round pick to the Raiders.

They keep the pick that figures to be the higher pick, which is the Eagles' pick, um, and they get a, get a starting quarterback out of this.

And Um, there are very clear reasons why you do this if you're the Vikings.

Kyler Murray, who they like more than the general public might think, um, has a grade 2 hamstring sprain, and because of the type of quarterback he is, having the hamstring injury does complicate things some.

And the first contact between the Vikings and the Raiders on this actually happened on Monday.

Um, before the Vikings game against the Bills, and the Vikings more or less made the decision that their course is gonna be set by what happened in the Monday night game.

They were optimistic after the week that Carson Wentz had, taking all the starter reps, and then things did not go well in what was a convincing loss to the Buffalo Bills.

And so, that was when they circled back and talked to the Raiders about the idea of trading for Cousins again.

Um, the Raiders gave the Vikings permission to talk to Cousins.

Um, the Raiders actually, um, left part of this up to Cousins himself.

We'll have more of that on the website on, on, on, uh, Wednesday morning, but, um, Cousins did want to go back and play for a contending team in Minnesota, and he's been afforded the ability to do that now.

And if you look at the Vikings team, again, this makes sense because of the position that they're in, they start the season 6-0, they've now lost two in a row.

Um, the quarterback position has really cost them at points this year, and the defense has been pretty far ahead of the offense.

The defense, of course, performing at a historic level.

The veteran group, um, the mix that they have right now isn't gonna last forever.

They've got some older guys contributing on that side of the ball, of course, Harrison Smith, Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, Kyle Van Noy, Byron Murphy.

Um, so the time is now for that group with Flores throwing a ton of offenses because he has such a veteran group, and then you look at the offensive side of the ball, and I think a piece of this is getting back to playing O'Connell's scheme, the way that it was meant to be played.

And if you look at O'Connell's history, I mean, going back to when he was the Rams' offensive coordinator, he had Jared Goff as his quarterback his first year there, they get Matthew Stafford the second year, then he has Kirk Cousins in Minnesota his first two years as the Vikings coach in 22 and 23.

Even in 24, you get the great year out of Sam Darnold.

Sam Darnold was in his seventh season at that point.

You know, and since then, it's been JJ McCarthy, um, in 2025.

Obviously, that went the way that it did.

And then this year, you know, you have a combination of Kyler Murray.

Well, I, I'm not sure it's the perfect fit for the offense.

Again, the Vikings like him a little bit more than people might think, but he's not the perfect fit for what they want to do offensively.

And Carson Wentz, who, you know, I, I always seemed to be a hit away from being injured and have been so inconsistent.

And so, um, yes, this is about running O'Connell's offense, but it's also about unlocking the abilities of the other 10 guys in the huddle who are drafted, who are signed, who are developed to play in O'Connell's offense.

And so part of the thought here, you know, and having Cousins as your starting quarterback again is that's gonna unlock another level of Justin Jefferson, another level of Jordan Addison, another level of TJ Hawkinson.

And Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason, the guys in the offensive line, Christian Darisa, certainly those guys would be happy to have a veteran back there at the quarterback position.

So even if he's a diminished version of what he was in 22 and 23, now you're getting a guy at the starting quarterback position who can unlock all of that.

And it's also important because the margins now are gonna be razor thin in the NFC.

If you're one of those seven teams, you know, that are, that, that, that have been marked as contenders.

In the NFC North or NFC West, that's the Vikings, the Bears, the Lions, the Packers, the 49ers, the Seahawks, and the, and the, and the Rams.

Only 5 of those teams are making the playoffs.

That means 2 are gonna be left out.

So even the Vikings, after their 6-0 start, could look at it and say there's a likelihood that if we don't do something, we could be on the outside looking in here, so.

Getting Kirk Cousins made all the sense in the world for them.

It made all the sense in the world for the Vikings.

And for the Raiders, they thought, thought for a few weeks now, Fernando Mendoza is ready.

Um, this is a, an organic, um, way of passing the torch.

They're able to do it.

They get a good return for Kirk Cousins.

This doesn't have to be like an undeserved benching.

Your starting quarterback.

Now you can naturally pass the torch down to Fernando Mendoza.

I think we're all excited to see what happens there with the rookie, first overall pick in the draft as a starting quarterback of the Raiders.

Um, now, our second topic for today, there was a big move by an NFC team.

We had a slew of big moves by an AFC team over the course of the last couple of days.

And that's the Jacksonville Jaguars trading a first-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in 2029 to the Eagles for Jordan Davis.

They acquire Jesse Bates from the Atlanta Falcons for a second-round pick this year and a fifth-round pick next year, and they go and get Devon Godchow for a sixth-round pick.

Now, I would start here.

The two most obvious things are true.

The first being that this is a team with Rams background, Liam Cohen, um, and, and James Gladstone cut their NFL teeth with the Rams.

They were around for a lot of the big swings the Rams took, so they've been, um, they've been in the building to see things like this happen and see things like this work out.

And so, the idea that they would be bold in a situation like this is part of like the DNA.

It's part of who they are because of their roots.

And then it's also a reflection, this would be the second thing that um they feel like the team that they have right now is in a in a championship window.

Over the last 18 regular season games, the Jaguars are 15 and 3.

They've won, as we said in the Breer report last week, 9 of those 15 games by 14 points or more.

They've got their core in place.

That makes the Draft picks a little bit more flexible, um, the, the, their ability to move those.

They might have a little more flexibility than another team does, and they're able to go out and really make their roster better.

As for the individual moves, there's logic there too.

So you bring in Jesse Bates, and, you know, looking at the The, the makeup of the player here, it matches really what they did with Jacoby with Jacoby Myers last year.

They traded for Jacoby Myers because they saw a guy who had toughness , who had intelligence, who had savvy, who could make their offense smarter, and the same sort of qualities are there with Jesse Bates, maybe even more so because he's gonna be a leader from the safety position.

He can make the defense smarter because he's tough, because he's Football intelligent because he's savvy, because he has the experience, all of that, um , you add to that the fact that.

That there is um an injury at the position, and they did lose Eric Murray at the position, um, you know, against the Colts a week and a half ago, and Jesse Bates makes all the sense in the world.

He's a free agent after this year, so whether or not that's a long-term move is a question, but it does shore up a hole and fit what they want to be on defense.

And then, You know, when you talk about the two defensive tackles, they lost Devon Hamilton.

They were already looking for defensive tackle before they lost Hamilton to the tour quad.

And Hamilton was really an anvil in the middle of their defense.

And what the Jaguars want the superpower of their defense to be with, with Anthony Campanelli as the coordinator is we stopped the run, we force that down in distance situations, then we can get exotic and aggressive and do a million things to an offense.

So, from that perspective, both Godchow and Davis are great fits.

Um, Godchow, his, his, his calling card has been his ability to stop the run since he's been in the league, and Jordan Davis is obviously a mountain of a man who is really effective on 1st and 2nd down.

So both those guys fit what the Jaguars want to be defensively.

And then with Davis, you do have upside left here.

And yes, he was only a 2-down player for the most part with the Eagles, but The Eagles scheme is more based on getting guys upfield.

So Moro Ajomo, who was the subject of a lot of trade calls over the course of the last couple of weeks.

The Eagles continually said, we're not moving them, we're not moving them, we're not moving them.

We're gonna try to sign him to a long-term deal.

They already had Davis and Jaylen Carter signed the long-term deals.

The reality was Carter and Ajema were the fits for what they do defensively, and maybe Davis a little less so.

So if you want to sign Davis long-term, if you have Carter signed long-term, something had to give, and the Jaguars making the call on Davis , then opened up the opportunity for them to say, OK.

This is the right time to move one player, so we can make financial space to re-sign another player.

And for the Jaguars now, you got Davis at 27 years older, he'll be 27 in January.

As the Jaguars see it just hitting the prime of his career, because when you have a defensive tackle, and you're counting on a young player, there is some development time needed that that's the way that position is.

A guy's in his prime in his late twenties.

They feel like they've got a guy hitting his prime in his late 20s.

They may have spent a first-round pick on a defensive tackle like this anyway.

They would have had to wait for him to develop.

They don't have to do that with Davis.

They have him signed through 2029.

So this is a move for both the now, which is what God Chow and Bates are, and the future, which is why the draft pick compensation is a little bit more.

But, you know, again, more than anything else, to come back to the top, to, to, to the two things, which is, this is kind of the way the Jaguars operate now with the Rams sort of ethos, and then on top of that, they feel like they're in a championship window and they needed to capitalize in the here and the now, which they did by acquiring Davis and Godchow and Bates.

Finally, our third topic.

The Chiefs make a move to bring in a receiver, and the Chiefs were digging on receivers over the course of the last couple of weeks.

You know, I think what they would ideally have liked is a guy who is young and could be their number one long term.

Brian Thomas had the ability to do that.

The Jags weren't as open on Brian Thomas.

Josh Downs makes sense for them as well.

And so they go and trade for.

Josh Downs, they had been talking about this over the course of the last couple of weeks.

I thought it was gonna be for a 4th-round pick.

It winds up being for a little more than that.

It's a 4 and a 5 with a 7 coming back, which means it's like a 5-7 pick swap.

And interestingly enough, this is sort of right in between where a couple of deadline deals for receivers were last year.

Jacoby Myers went from Vegas to Jacksonville for a 4 and a 5.

And then, or I'm, I'm sorry, Vegas to Vegas to Jacksonville for a 4 and a 6 , and then Rasheed Shaheed went from New Orleans to Seattle for a 4 and a 5.

This is right in between those two, as far as the, the return.

Um, for, for Patrick Mahomes, this, this, this , this, this means a reliable run after the catch.

Smart slot receiver coming in who can help them move the chains, who can be somebody he can count on in critical spots.

Similar to Kelsey, obviously, different body type and everything else, but bring some similar things to the table.

And, you know, in, in a world where you're waiting for.

So to develop a little bit where Rasheed Rice has not been dependable from an injury standpoint, from an off-field standpoint.

Here's somebody that you can count on.

I'd assume they'll look at the idea of signing him long-term, but he makes sense for right now and then he gives you a guy that you can count on.

And again, that's an important thing, um, with so many moving parts of the position.

So they hope Rashi Rice.

Can finally, finally really hit his stride as a pro in year 4.

They hope Cyrus Allen can develop into what they saw in camp and as a rookie, it's hard to produce that position, but they saw some Stefon Diggs traits there.

Um, can Allen grow into that?

You know, they've got other guys, of course, on hand that have been helping fill in the blanks there, but Downs gives them something they can really count on.

And it'll be exciting to see what he looks like in that offense.

Um, you know, as a, as a guy who I think can, you know, be a really important piece of the offense from the rip, and then, you know, maybe somebody you look at signing long term and become somebody that you can build around at the receiver spot.

Appreciate you guys coming out as always, you can leave.

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We'll see you a little later in the week with a preview of week 10.