Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins
What else can be said about the Atlanta Falcons and the Kirk Cousins‘ trade situation? The Falcons drafted Michael Penix, Jr. with the eighth-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, about a month or so after signing Cousins to a four-year, $180-million deal with $100 million in guarantees and a no-trade clause.
The Falcons have been unable to trade Cousins even with many speculating that he would be gone during the recent draft. It hasn’t happened and it seems to involve all that money that someone is going to have to pay him.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler was on SportsCenter Saturday morning and said the sticking point indeed is cash related.
“I had some conversations with people this week that led me to believe that Cousins is at the very least on the Steelers’ radar, if something were fall through on Rodgers,” Fowler said. “Now, here’s how they could make that happen. Cousins has $37.5 million in guarantees between this year and next year. Somebody’s on the hook for that, whether it’s Atlanta or someone else. So to facilitate a trade, Atlanta would need a team to offset some of that money, whether it’s $4 million, $20 million, whatever it is, but the feeling around the league is that Atlanta has not been willing to budge on this.”
Fowler thinks the Falcons are perfectly fine keeping Cousins as a backup quarterback. It would be one heck of a contingency plan if Penix were to struggle, although that would be an extremely expensive contingency plan.
“They haven’t shown a lot of interest in trading Cousins, it would take a hefty price tag for another team to wiggle that out,” Fowler continued. “As one source told me, if they were willing to take a small percentage, like let’s say $7 or $8 million of that money, a deal would be done by now. There was interest earlier in the offseason. Right now, Pittsburgh might be the only hope for Cousins or he’s stuck in Atlanta.”
Could Pittsburgh be a destination for Cousins?
The Pittsburgh Steelers would be an obvious option if the Aaron Rodgers thing falls through. While known for taking his time when making these types of decisions, Rodgers did seem to hint that he’s leaning towards signing with Pittsburgh.
At a recent event, Rodgers was asked during a Q&A if he would ever consider playing for the Chicago Bears.
“No, but I believe there’s a team that might play in Chicago this year on a road trip,” Rodgers replied. “I don’t know, not sure. Got to check it out. I love Chicago, though. Way more than they love me. It’s been a great relationship. All one way.”
The Steelers play in Chicago this year on November 23rd.
Pittsburgh currently has quarterbacks Mason Rudolph, Skylar Thompson and Will Howard on the roster. Rudolph is 14-14-1 in his career as a starting QB. Thompson is 4-6. Howard is a rookie.
So, yes, if they don’t get Rodgers signed, they will most certainly be calling Atlanta about Cousins.
Cousins can still play
Cousins was actually pretty good last year until the end of the season happened. His end-of-the-year stats weren’t terrible with 3,508 passing yards, 18 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. But, those that watched the Falcons know that he simply couldn’t buy a win for much of the second-half of the year. From Week 10 to Week 15, Atlanta was 1-4 with the one win coming against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Penix will have a pretty long leash, but he’s still never entered a season as the starting quarterback in the NFL and he could falter. Cousins wouldn’t be the sexiest option, but he’s certainly capable of stepping in and leading the Falcons to the playoffs. And considering that any draft picks that he’d fetch in trade wouldn’t help until next year, he might just be worth keeping around.
