After the Falcons benched a struggling Kirk Cousins, the expectation has been for a release to commence. Cousins does not look to have a route back to Atlanta’s starting job, especially after No. 8 overall pick Michael Penix Jr. showed promise in his three starts.
A release will remain the expectation, but Terry Fontenot attempted to craft an alternative solution — one that may not be taken at face value. The fifth-year Falcons GM said (via The Athletic’s Josh Kendall) the team would be fine keeping Cousins as its backup.
Fontenot, who has survived in his post despite four straight losing seasons, oversaw a widely criticized plan that featured the Falcons both giving Cousins $90MM guaranteed at signing and then drafting Penix in the top 10 six-plus weeks later. This historically unusual route led to a benching after 14 games, with Cousins not showing the form that had made him a steady option in Minnesota. This led to retirement rumors, but the 36-year-old passer will aim to play in 2025.
Players in Cousins’ contractual neighborhood are not backups, as the immobile QB will be due a $27.5MM base salary in 2025. No quarterback with a salary north of $12.5MM is a current backup. Cousins is due to count $40MM against the Falcons’ cap this year. The Falcons keeping the 13-year veteran would also leave them on the hook for an additional $10MM guaranteed, due March 17. The Falcons also included a no-trade clause in Cousins’ contract, which all but ensures he will hit free agency.
The team will almost certainly look to escape that final payment by designating the QB as a post-June 1 cut. That measure would split a monster dead money bill over two offseasons, helping the Falcons after their 2024 mistake. The $65MM penalty would check in second all time — by a substantial margin — in terms of a single-player dead money hit. Russell Wilson still leads the way, with part two of his $83MM-plus dead money charge set to hit the Broncos’ payroll soon.
Any hopes the Falcons would have in trading Cousins’ $27.5MM salary would need to involve the NFC South club paying most of it to facilitate a deal. Given Cousins’ concerning play before his benching, the Falcons will have a near-impossible task of convincing a team to take on the contract. Though, this year is not on track to feature a promising QB market — either in free agency or the draft. This would help explain why the Falcons will attempt to dangle their sunk cost a bit longer.
Cousins cannot be cut until after Super Bowl LIX, and no post-June 1 releases can take place until the start of the 2025 league year (March 12). This gives Atlanta some time, even though the odds are against a trade coming to pass.
Cousins did elevate Atlanta’s passing attack compared to where it was with Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder, but a difficult late-season stretch prompted Raheem Morris to bench a player the team hoped would start for two seasons. That was the party line, anyway. In reality, top-10 QB investments do not sit for two years. Penix will now have a full offseason to develop as a starter, with Cousins likely to hit free agency for a third time.
Ah yes, definitely a situation they’re comfortable with and not a bluff.
Def not because having to deal with his cap hit once he leaves
Trying to build up his value after this year’s debacle. Good luck with that story when everyone knows he’ll be dumped before that $10M bill comes due.
This situation is a Dumpster Fire, no chance on this working
why the f did atl give cousins 180mil then immediately spend 8th overall pick on a QB?? why they so incompetent?
Love the handle name. One of the greatest musicians to ever live.
It’s called idiocy. It’ll take a while to dig themselves out of that dead cap money
Kyle Pitts, Drake London, Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier. All they need was a quarterback to complete the classic quintet, but hopefully they won’t have to travel miles to do so.
In all seriousness, I see why what happened happened. That said, there’s absolutely no way that Cousins can be retained as a backup long term for the length of the contract at that salary. He’s handled it better than anyone could be expected to, but it’s just entirely too much to devote on what will be a multi-year deal for someone who has starting value. Despite his sheer cliff style drop-off and the limited openings at QB right now in the league, Cousins could definitely wrangle a starting short term job somewhere.
The advantage that Atlanta has is the weakness of the incoming quarterback class. No, there aren’t many openings elsewhere, but there also aren’t a ton of options to fill them. Day One starting prospects for teams who need them figure to include the draftable prospects (namely Sanders and Ward), Rodgers, or possibly Darnold (Vikes might retain him; if so McCarthy could be a trade chip, but I doubt it strongly). Other options could be Minshew or Jones, neither of whom had a great year last year. I suppose that Purdy and Geno Smith could be listed here as outside options. In any case, my point is that none really have as long a history of starting production as Cousins does. Whatever our opinion is of him, he’s clearly a viable option to consider for teams going into next year…at least, the few who aren’t settled.
The Falcons, I think, have seen good enough things from the rookie to allow him a shot. It was poor planning, but I doubt any of us, even Cousins’ worst detractors, expected such an abrupt drop off towards the end of the year. Cousins started well, after all; but his injury this year, coupled with his major injury last year and his age, should be enough to let Atlanta move on earlier than expected. They’re not ready yet, though; Penix looked great individually in his handful of starts, but without defensive investment, Atlanta might be left feeling Kind of Blue.
It’s going to be a make or break year for Fontenot, I suspect. He’ll have to work some serious magic to improve the roster all while dealing with the ebbs and flows of a first year starting QB. Good luck to him. Hopefully Penix lights the league on fire.
Ain’t Necessarily So. We’ll know ‘Round Midnight.
*tongue firmly in cheek, here*
Y’all gotta stop saying this nonsense, these moves are smart, just didn’t produce the results they hoped for .. Follow me here , First we signed Kirko (March 11).. To what really amounts to a 2 yr deal ..What we have is a 35yr QB coming off a devastating injury , hoping he could ignite this stagnant offense..(And really he was the best option) Draft day rolls around the picks start flying off the board 3 QBs are already picked and it becomes obvious every QB is going in the first ..Assume the falcons aren’t dumb and wanted a QB to develop behind Kirko (in case he’s not quite what we paid for, or if he’s worth ever penny and our future draft picks will be in the late 20’s).. Like it or not this is our only shot. Can’t trade back, there are atleast 4 more teams potentially going QB right behind you. They bag Penix and high five.
Obviously Todd McShay And Mad Mel can’t fathom why you didn’t draft their guy and ESPN cooks you (but not the Vikings or the Commies) for signing and drafting a guy ..Fast forward to now and it what it is , Cousins ain’t back and the #8 pick (who they should have never picked) is starting games..
And obviously keeping cousins around is an even smarter choice .. Penix was injury prone (and not the couple games kind) and Kirko is now a year removed from said devastating injury. Your already stuck paying him, He is still very useful for the team and Penix .. Smart moves, just didn’t pan out like everyone hoped
How does Fontenot still have a job. It’s been 5 years with very little improvement. Come on Dude
Blank’s been a pretty patient owner. I don’t that’s bad necessarily; the alternative is that he could force a QB pick like, say, Irsay did with Ballard and Richardson (and perhaps with Rivers and Ryan before). The results aren’t there, but this is the Falcons’ first high QB pick in a while. Fontenot will probably get at least two years to make it work, barring abject disaster (which is of course quite possible). The weakness of the division helps, but it’s also a pretty young division-so the Falcons are racing against their rivals to “get there” first right now.
At least, that’s the way that I see it.
Release him and let his agent swing calls to titans jets or raiders
This after they had a 2022 Dead Cap hit of $40.5M for Matt Ryan.
The gaslighting continues in Atlanta.
Thank god for the Jets, Raiders and Cowboys, otherwise this team would get more traction.
Guys, the Falcons are already paying the freight on Cousins. It makes no sense to release Cousins and then spend $8 million on another backup QB. It also makes little sense to spend $3 million on a backup QB (he won’t be a worthwhile backup).
I’ve written this before (but PFR has written this article before) but the winning play here is to keep Cousins on the roster and to trade away half his salary and receive a day three pick when some playoff contender loses their starting QB to sudden injury. This results in $20 million cap saving and an immediate third round pick. Plus Cousins is on hand if the Falcons need him (Pennix plays badly or is injured). Releasing him saves just $2 million (the Falcons still have to pay a backup QB) and maybe nets a comp third rounder two years down the line).
The Falcons should never have given Kirk that contract but now that they have, they should make the best of it.
I agreed with your thinking.
ATL’s GM may have also attended the Jerry Jones’s school of general management , but what do I know…
Obvious play is keep him one more year. Dude carries a 65 mill dead cap hit.
For a team that’s hoping to contend in a pretty wide open division that really messes up FA to take that kind of hit, extra 15 mill hit.
They wait a year dead cap hit drops to 25 mill then 12.5 mill
Unless some team steps up and trades for Cousins seems like Falcons and Cousins are married to each at least 1 more year
I could see a team trading for Cousins, despite the cap hit. It would especially work if Cousins agrees to some kind of contract adjustment to facilitate the trade, which is something that I would be shocked to *not* see. Team(including Atlanta) have seemingly been more comfortable taking on enormous QB cap hits in recent years, and if the Falcons can get a pick out of it, they’ll at least get that. Cousins being mature and understanding about it may also influence the team to help move him to his preferred outcome.
All this, of course, if he doesn’t retire.
I’m relieved the Bears aren’t looking for a bridge QB… otherwise they would overpay for Cousins the same way they did with Mike Glennon.
Cousins a back-up….yeh…sure….this guy make Schoen of the Giants look like a genius……
This is very funny