It's yet to be known if the Green Bay Packers will trust Jordan Love to be their long-term starter. That doesn't mean, though, that the franchise is ready to move on.

But ESPN NFL insider Dan Graziano believes the Packers are a sleeper team to make a shocking move: signing Kirk Cousins, the quarterback from the divisional rival Minnesota Vikings, slated to be a free agent next offseason.

Full report

^{"My sleeper is Green Bay. Jordan Love doesn't look like the answer, and while the Packers are as patient as any team in the league, they're also used to winning. Cousins knows the Packers' offense because it's a derivative of Kyle Shanahan's scheme from their time together in Washington, and Cousins and Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur could work well together.}

^{I recognize this is out of left field and completely different from any way the Packers usually operate. But Love's "extension" includes a palatable $5.5 million in guaranteed salary in 2024 and nothing thereafter. If they get to the end of this season and decide Love isn't the guy moving forward, the Packers might not feel like drafting another guy and waiting for him to develop. And even if they do that, Cousins could be the solution in the meantime for a team with a promising young wide receiver group."}

Love context

The Packers have Jordan Love under contract for 2024. It's $6 million in cash, a deal in line with other backups around the league. But there is no indication from the Packers side that they want to sign another quarterback.

Maybe if the Packers lose most of the remaining games for the rest of the season, the team management would consider a drastic move. The draft still seems like a more realistic option even in an extreme scenario, but Graziano works under the impression that the decision-makers wouldn't be willing to develop another passer right away after what would have been a failure with Love.

Cousins context

Kirk Cousins is in the last year of his deal with the Vikings. Even though the contract doesn't have a no-tag clause, a franchise tag can't be applied because the deal voids after the window to do so.

Technically, the quarterback won't be a free agent until the franchise tag window is closed, and that obviously was made on purpose. Cousins will be a free agent, unless he signs a new contract with the Vikings before his current deal voids in March.

There are some problems for any team willing to sign Kirk Cousins. The first one is something that has accompanied him throughout his career. Cousins is a good, but not great quarterback, and he demands basically elite-level money. It's a hard combination for a team to be a real contender, even though the Packers have an inexpensive offense everywhere else.

Moreover, Kirk Cousins will be 36 by the start of next season, and coming off a serious Achilles injury – an injury that has a track record of limiting athletes for years, if not for the rest of their careers.

Does it make sense?

For starters, Kirk Cousins seems inclined to stay in Minnesota. Only a big-time offer money-wise may be enough to change his mind.

For the Packers, it's hard to envision a scenario where they make a big move to trade away Aaron Rodgers to give up on Love after only one season, and then sign another veteran, and worse, passer. It would mean they threw away any chance to extend their all-in approach with Rodgers to make another short-term decision, and this one with much worse chances of success.

Things change quickly in the NFL, but at this point it’s really unlikely that anything close to it will happen – because it doesn't seem to make sense for either side.

In their piece, Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano mention the Atlanta Falcons as the most likely scenario if Cousins leaves the Vikings. The San Francisco 49ers is also cited, because Kyle Shanahan has a long relationship with the veteran quarterback – to a point where Kyle’s dad, Mike Shanahan, revealed that the 49ers offered the second overall pick in 2017 to Washington trying to acquire the passer.

These scenarios are much more realistic than the Packers. It would be a shocking move, and one too far apart from how the organization tends to operate.

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