The Raiders beat the Jets 38-33 on Sunday and snapped a four-game losing streak.
Somehow that win makes the case for trading Kirk Cousins stronger, not weaker.
Cousins threw three touchdowns and ran one in himself. He’s up to 16 touchdown passes through seven games, tops in the entire NFL, with a 68.2% completion rate and only five interceptions.
Quarterback-needy teams around the league would be smart to call the Raiders about him, and some already are.
Vegas is still 4-4 and sitting ninth in the AFC. The quarterback it drafted first overall is still standing on the sideline waiting for his first snap.
That’s the whole case in one sentence. Cousins is playing like a top-tier quarterback for a team with no business competing for anything in 2027.
His value is never going to be higher than it is six days before the deadline.
Every bit of this points to the same offseason reality. Fernando Mendoza is still stuck on the bench after Vegas spent the first overall pick on him, and trading Cousins now doesn’t delay that timeline. It speeds it up.
The Raiders already know this.
They’ve told multiple teams the price for Cousins is a 2027 first-round pick, a number that only exists because of Sunday.
🚨🚨DEVELOPING: The #Raiders have informed multiple teams the asking price for Kirk Cousins is a 2027 first round pick.
Las Vegas is 4-4, sitting in 9th place in the AFC, with 1st overall pick Fernando Mendoza still waiting to make his NFL debut as a starting quarterback.
The… pic.twitter.com/wBRFbIyNXa
— NFC North News (@NFCNorthNewss) November 2, 2026
Take it. This is the one window where a quarterback-starved front office pays a first for a 37-year-old coming off a four-game losing streak. It won’t open twice.
Maxx Crosby isn’t going anywhere quietly either. The voided Ravens trade from earlier this year didn’t kill the market. It just paused it.
Dallas’s deadline plans are not a secret.
From NFL Insider @JasonLaCanfora on the Jerry Jones targeting a pass rushers at the trade deadline:
“Adding an edge rusher remains Jones’ top priority, as we hear it, with Maxx Crosby, Khalil Mack, and Josh Sweat all potential targets. We expect him to land one of the three.… pic.twitter.com/j0cLLhW5BR
— Brandon Loree (@Brandoniswrite) November 3, 2026
A five-time Pro Bowler is still the best trade chip on this roster. Voided deal or not.
Then there’s Jackson Powers-Johnson, who isn’t even starting anymore.
Caleb Rogers took his guard spot. Now Trey Zuhn III is in the mix too.
When a former first-round pick loses his job to a rotation, you move him before he’s worth a conditional seventh.
None of that means Sunday wasn’t fun. Dylan Laube took a kickoff back 95 yards for the Raiders’ first kick-return touchdown since 2011, clocked at just under 21 miles per hour.
Rookies Treydan Stukes and Zeke Masses have combined for nine passes defensed, the most by a Raiders rookie class through eight games since 2000. Good for them.
None of it gets this roster into January.
And it sure doesn’t belong in the same conversation as this week’s NFL trade deadline coverage.
Cousins went to In-N-Out after the game like he always does when Vegas wins. A fan account posted him shirtless in diamond chains on the flight home.
Kirko Chainz is officially back.
Cousins led the league in touchdown passes five days ago and the Raiders lost their fourth straight anyway. One win over a bad Jets team doesn’t erase that math.
It just makes Cousins, Crosby and Powers-Johnson easier to sell.