Last week Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins revealed to Good Morning Football that he suffered shoulder and elbow injuries in week 10 against the New Orleans Saints that he said affected his play when he originally claimed he was healthy during the season. Cousins also talked about how he never got his elbow and shoulder back to where he wanted it to be for the rest of the season.
After this video circulated social media and the internet it felt like the Falcons needed to cut Kirk and move on from him right away no matter the cap implications, but earlier today on The Morning Shift Falcons beat writer for The Athletic Josh Kendall explained why he thinks the Falcons will still be able to trade the veteran quarterback and get something back for him.
“I still think that there’s a chance that they trade him. Now, it’s only a space saving trade in the sense that you’re not gonna get much for him, but I think that, you know, let’s just use Cleveland as the closest hypothetical. If Cleveland says we’d rather Kirk [Cousins] not get out to full free agency and have to deal with all that we’re gonna give you a sixth round pick or a seventh round pick just to take care of the clerical issues as you said and we’ll work out the contract details, the Falcons will have to eat and have already had to eat a ton of money, and will I’m sure eat more if they can just to save face a little bit.” Kendall said.
Josh goes on to talk about how the Falcons can actually save some good money and create some salary cap space if they are able to pull off a trade for Cousins.
“You could save $27.5 million dollars which is almost real money in the Falcons world.” Josh said.
It would definitely be more beneficial to the Falcons if they’re able to trade him, but the Falcons QB still has three years remaining on his massive deal that he signed with Atlanta last offseason, and carries a cap number of $40 million in 2025. Cousins has $27.5 million in guaranteed salary slated for next season, but none after that point, so to Josh’s point if the Falcons eat a lot of Cousins’ money a team that feels they are a quarterback away may be willing to make a trade with the Falcons.
However, the way Cousins' deal is structured makes it nearly prohibitive for Atlanta to trade him away pre-June 1. The Falcons would save just $2.5 million on his cap number, while a trade during offseason workouts, training camp or the upcoming season would only saddle Atlanta with $12.5 million in dead money.
All rumors and reports point to Cousins’ wanting to be cut so he can choose what team he wants to play for next season. The Falcons have until the fifth day of the new league year on March 16 to make a decision on Kirk, and if Cousins is on the roster after that he’s guaranteed an additional $10 million in 2026 along with his $27.5 million in cash next year.
There’s a good chance the Falcons will wait right up until that deadline to make their decision, so there will most likely not be any closure on this situation until at least a little over a month from now.
