and then reconsider how valuable Cousins is

Now, to be clear, I echo almost everything you said except for the part about beating good teams. I think he's totally capable of beating good teams, but he's handcuffed by mediocre coaching and less-than-stellar talent around him. And, the truth is, that's most quarterbacks in the league = only as successful as their coaching and surrounding talent. You take a guy like Case Keenum - a career backup - and equip him exceptional coaching, pass catchers, and defense, and voila, you've got a Pro Bowler on your hands.

So I would encourage you to take a look around at every team and then make a comparison to our situation.


The obviously better situations:
Patriots
Packers
Steelers
Saints
Eagles

The probably better situations:
Chargers
Panthers
Seahawks

The comparable situations:
Vikings
Cowboys
Lions
Giants
Texans

that still leaves so many quarterbacks that Cousins is obviously better than, and a good handful that are open for debate.

If there's a way to keep him "affordably", and still draft and nurture talent, then I personally feel you have to.

People love to say that Joe Flacco handcuffed the Ravens because of the contract,but Joe Flacco handcuffed the Ravens because he just sort of sucks. In addition, there were three hall of famers on that last Ravens Super Bowl team on the defense - Reed, Ray, Ngata - and they all split, and Ozzie Newsome has whiffed on a lot of picks of late. It's more complex than "well they can't pay anybody." They brought in Eric Weddle and Elvis Dumervil via free agency and are still paying Suggs, and they also drafted CJ Mosley. The matter isn't money, it's that they suck at offense from the top of the organization to the bottom and historically have.