The Atlanta Falcons are reportedly sending another message about their plans for quarterback Kirk Cousins.
The Falcons intend to keep Cousins in the roster past Sunday, which will ensure the quarterback receives a $10 million roster bonus, according to Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports. The move suggests the Falcons are serious about either keeping Cousins as a backup for 2025 or only moving him via trade.
I thought the #Falcons were bluffing about keeping Kirk Cousins. I don’t think that anymore. They’re going to roll right through the Sunday deadline to lock in another $10 million in 2026 guaranteed salary and see where this goes. Either he’s a pricey backup or a trade candidate.
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) March 12, 2025
The Falcons’ stance might be the best of a set of bad options. Releasing Cousins would force the Falcons to absorb a dead cap hit of $65 million, so keeping him on the roster is actually less expensive. The downside is that potential trade partners would need to take on Cousins’ $40 million cap hit if they were to deal for him, though they would have a less expensive out after the 2025 campaign.
The risk for the Falcons is that they would be keeping an unhappy player on their roster. Atlanta perhaps feels that even if Cousins is unhappy, he will not rock the boat too much if forced to be a backup.
One team has been consistently linked to Cousins for the last several months. It remains to be seen how willing they would be to make a trade and absorb that hefty cap hit.
Cousins lost his starting job to Michael Penix Jr. last season in the first year of a four-year, $180 million contract. He threw for 3,508 yards with 18 touchdowns in 14 starts, but a league-worst 16 interceptions to go with it.
