The Carolina Panthers got their guy! They made Baker Mayfield their newest quarterback, sending a conditional fifth-round pick to the Cleveland Browns for the disgruntled signal caller. If Cleveland is willing to take a fifth-rounder for Baker and eat two-thirds of his salary, what does that say about Kirk Cousins?
What’s Cousins’ perceived value in the league? Remember the rumors that Carolina was going to trade for him? Why wouldn’t they want a quarterback of his pedigree?
The fifth-round pick Carolina traded to Cleveland will become a fourth-rounder if [conditions]. The Browns still owe Mayfield $10.5 million, and the Panthers are only on the hook for $4.85 million this year. $3.45 million of his deal is now incentive-based.
The best part? The Panthers play the Browns Week 1.
You might be asking what any of this has to do with Cousins and the Vikings. Well, the Panthers were a reported trade partner for Cousins earlier in the offseason. However, that was followed by rumors that Carolina’s front office “laughed off” those reports.
Regardless of the truth behind the Cousins rumors, the Panthers needed a quarterback, and they settled for Mayfield rather than making a blockbuster trade for Cousins. So why didn’t they have enough interest in Captain Kirk to seriously consider trading for him?
First, Cousins might not be a good fit for the Panthers. The biggest factor here is offensive line play. Minnesota’s line may have underperformed last season, but the Panthers are in an even worse position. I mean, they are starting the Vikings sloppy seconds in Pat Elflein (who, full disclosure, I was sure would eventually turn it around).
Carolina needs a player who can improvise when plays break down because that’s undoubtedly going to happen with a weak pass-blocking line. (Their run block ratings aren’t any better either, unlike the Vikings.) Poor ability to improvise is my biggest critique of Cousins – and I have a few. When a play breaks down, Cousins oftentimes does too.
The Panthers needed a quarterback, but they needed one that can perform behind a bottom-tier line. Mayfield does just that. Like Cousins, Mayfield is deceptively quick. But unlike Cousins, he uses his feet to escape pressure sometimes. On top of being reasonably affordable, he just fits their team better.
Carolina has some good weapons for any quarterback as well. Teddy Bridgewater almost had a career-high 4,000 yards with the team in 2020. They have money tied up at the skill positions, so I fully understand why they waited for a player like Mayfield to be available. It’s a lot less risky than going all-out for a controversial player like Cousins. They just need someone who can get the ball to one of their skilled receivers or Christain McCaffrey.
With the way Carolina has built their offense, Cousins would’ve been overkill in it. Furthermore, they likely would’ve had to dump Sam Darnold in the trade, and do the Vikings really want him? Carolina would need to trade Darnold because they have so much money tied up in their quarterback room. They have Darnold, Matt Corral, P.J. Walker, and now Mayfield. Weirdly, they have the deepest QB room at a position where teams only need two or three guys.
That also might be a factor why they didn’t value Cousins as the Vikings do. Availability is Cousins’ biggest upside. I don’t know if the ballistic vest he’s wearing is the only thing keeping him ridiculously healthy or what but he just doesn’t miss time.
But the Panthers are in a unique position with their QBs. They can put one in, and if they get hurt, the backup might be just as good on any given Sunday. They’ve had seven different QBs start a game in the past three seasons. Mayfield and Corral have yet to start for them, but the ones who have started have all had about the same results – it just hasn’t been pretty.
It comes down to how much each team values a player. For myriad reasons, Cousins is just too highly valued in Minnesota. He’s durable, is undeniably a leader in the locker room at this point, and I think Kevin O’Connell is familiar enough with him to comfortably start him. The Panthers needed someone like Mayfield. That’s fair, even if it seems silly to compare Cousins to Mayfield from purely a talent perspective.
