The Kirk Cousins Twist is Rippling Through the NFL Combine
Do the Falcons actually keep Kirk Cousins in town for the 2025 season?
At first, the possibility seemed like a total long shot. Back when the news first broke of Cousins being benched for Michael Penix Jr., The NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero wrote: “If Cousins remains on the Atlanta roster as of March 16, another $10M in 2026 would become fully guaranteed — not impossible, but practically unfathomable after the decision today.” Keep in mind that we’re talking about Pelissero, one of the NFL’s best insiders with connections to Minnesota aplenty. His word carries weight.
The Kirk Cousins Twist at the Combine
The latest update, however, is that Atlanta is considering keeping him to be the backup to Penix, last year’s No. 8 pick.
Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team writes, “#Falcons GM Terry Fontenot said they’re comfortable keeping Kirk Cousins as the backup, paying him $27.5M in 2025 while also triggering another $10M to become fully guaranteed for 2026 on March 17.”
Mike Garafolo of The NFL Network passed along his own update: “#Falcons GM Terry Fontenot indicated Kirk Cousins will remain with the team for the foreseeable future. So no quick resolution there.”
Pro Football Talk picked up on the story, offering a bit more background and insight.
“Falcons General Manager Terry Fontenot said in January,” Josh Alper explains, “that the team is comfortable with Kirk Cousins as their backup quarterback for the 2025 season and he said the same thing from the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday.”
Alper goes on: “Cousins has a guaranteed salary of $27.5 million for the coming season and a no-trade clause that could require the Falcons to cut him before $10 million of his 2026 compensation becomes fully guaranteed early in the new league year. Unless Cousins waives that trade protections and the Falcons find a willing trade partner, that makes it hard for the Falcons to take a different stance at this point in the offseason and Fontenot focused on Cousins adapting well after being benched last season.”
There is then the quote from Fontenot: “Obviously, Kirk’s a really talented player, he’s a great man, all those things. Again, he handled that role well at the end of the season.”
In all likelihood, the Falcons will find a way to move on from Kirk Cousins. Yes, there will be some financial pain with doing so, but keeping him around at that price to be a backup seems untenable. Alas, we’ll need to wait and see.
Cousins had a poor 2024 season. The veteran passer went 7-7 as Atlanta’s starter, completing 66.9% of his passes for 3,508 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions. Last offseason, there was some belief that Cousins could be the missing piece for a team with talent across the roster, but that ended up being a misguided idea.
Cousins, 37 in August, is going into year two of his four-year, $180 million contract that’s now looking like a disaster. Time will tell what the Falcons decide to do.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on social media (Bluesky & Twitter). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.