Kirk Cousins trade rumors: 5 best destinations
By John Buhler
Houston Texans
AFC, South
If the Houston Texans seriously want to roll with Tom Savage as their Week 1 starter, good luck with that. Houston may be very high on Savage, but Cousins is good enough to lead Houston to the Super Bowl if he is their starting quarterback.
Cousins would be better than peak Matt Schaub in Houston. He is an incredibly accurate passer and would make the Texans an elite team if he was their quarterback in 2017. Houston was able to clear up some much-needed cap space via the Brock Osweiler trade with the Cleveland Browns. If the Texans were willing to pay Osweiler, why wouldn’t they pay for Cousins long-term?
The AFC South is not really a quarterback-driven division , but it is getting better. Indianapolis has Andrew Luck and Tennessee has Marcus Mariota. Luck and Mariota have the necessary skill set to quarterback their teams on deep playoff runs in the AFC to close out the decade. Houston doesn’t have that luxury and could see their championship window close if the Texans front office doesn’t act quickly.
Texans head coach Bill O’Brien hasn’t had a quarterback as accurate as Cousins since he was Tom Brady’s quarterbacks coach for the New England Patriots. It would be a breath of fresh air to not deal with signal callers like Christian Hackenburg and Osweiler rocketing the pigskin all over the gridiron lackadaisically.
Washington would want Houston’s No. 25 pick this spring, a defensive starter, and maybe a day two draft pick in 2018 for Cousins. Houston has the available resources and maybe enough cap space to trade for and sign Cousins long-term. However, this is the same organization that signed Osweiler before O’Brien even met with the guy. Not sure Houston can be trusted to make a smart, blockbuster deal if we’re being honest.