Speculation is running rampant around the New York Jets quarterback search, and the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine news cycle has added more fuel to the ongoing fire.
According to a new report from the New York Post’s Brian Costello, Aaron Glenn’s squad is not interested in acquiring the services of free-agent-to-be Kirk Cousins.
“Kirk Cousins is not on the Jets’ radar at all,” Costello wrote as part of a more general quarterback story. “You can cross him (Cousins) off the list.”
Cousins, 37, could be described as the veteran quarterback of all veteran quarterbacks these days (this side of Aaron Rodgers). Things haven’t exactly worked out for him in Atlanta, which is why nobody is surprised to hear the Falcons plan to release him on March 11, which is the first official day of the new league year.
In March of 2024, Cousins signed an insane four-year, $180 million contract with the Falcons. He interestingly still received $100 million guaranteed despite still rehabbing from a torn Achilles tendon he suffered in October of 2023.
Of course, older Jets fans remember the Mike Maccagnan days, when Cousins’s name couldn’t drop out of the headlines. During the 2018 offseason, the Jets flirted with the idea of signing then-free agent Cousins.
At the end of the day, it appeared as though Cousins used the Jets’ beefing up their open-market offer to squeeze more money out of the Minnesota Vikings. New York subsequently traded up to the No. 3 pick of the 2018 NFL draft to select Sam Darnold.
These days, the Jets terribly need a reliable quarterback. The Justin Fields experiment failed spectacularly, which throws Darren Mougey and company into an unenviable position this offseason.
At the very least, Kirk Cousins — despite how the New York Jets genuinely feel about signing the man to potentially a league-minimum deal — remains a viable hold-the-fort-down option.
