They say when you come for the king you better not miss, so I'll just shoot you all straight: I think ESPN's QB ideas are bad. (Got 'em!) For all the smart, logical football analysis that shows up on their site and channel every single day, there are multiple terrible QB takes. They're like the hydra, if all three heads were just ESPN suits who forced people to write pointless ideas because "they'll go viral and that's great for our brand."
For example, in this week's QB prediction roundup (not to be confused with last week's QB prediction roundup) ESPN predicts multiple different Pro Bowl quarterbacks going to the Raiders next year. You can't be wrong if you pick everyone! And the usual suspect is Dak Prescott, which is nothing new if you've been as painstakingly tapped into Raiders QB rumors as we at JBB have. But they didn't stop at Prescott this time – they took your worst nightmare and decided to hit send. Here's what they consider the "most likely" outcome this season.
Raiders could go get ... Kirk Cousins? ... according to ESPN
"O'Connell opens the season as the starter, but Minshew eventually looks like the better option and starts the bulk of the games. The Raiders play excellent defense but struggle to score and finish at the bottom of the AFC West. They draft a quarterback with a high pick in the 2025 draft or trade for someone like Kirk Cousins."
KIRK COUSINS. As in, the Kirk Cousins who just signed a four-year deal worth approximately 10 billion dollars with the Atlanta Falcons five months ago; the Kirk Cousins who's 35 years old and coming off a serious achilles tendon injury. In ESPN's defense, it does kind of make sense that Cousins – a first ballot business Hall of Famer – would fleece the Raiders' front office at least once in his career. In the most depressing way possible, they're a match made in heaven.
Yesterday it was Dak Prescott, today it's Kirk Cousins. Stay tuned tomorrow for tomorrow's guess, Matt Ryan.