Once again, Kirk Cousins tendency to spill the beans is putting the Falcons in an awkward position.
Terry Fontenot spoke to the Atlanta media and the national media on Tuesday morning at the NFL Combine, and unsurprisingly, Kirk Cousins was a hot topic of conversation.
Cousins recently said he took a hit in the Falcons’ Week 10 loss against the Saints that left him with lingering injury issues for the rest of the season. Fontenot said on Tuesday that this was news to him and to the Falcons.
The Falcons were surprised by Kirk Cousins injury comments Super Bowl week and had no indication he was dealing with anything from Week 11 on, GM Terry Fontenot said this week. Fontenot declined to say what conversations have happened with Cousins since.
— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) February 25, 2025
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris was obviously asked about this situation as well. According to Dan Pizzuta of The 33rd Team, Morris said media would have to ask Kirk about it.
Cousins was on the Falcons’ injury report leading up to the Week 11 matchup against the Broncos with a right shoulder and right elbow injury. He was limited in practice that Wednesday, practiced fully the rest of the week, played (poorly, completing 18 of 27 passes for 173 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception) against Denver, was benched late in the game and replaced by rookie Michael Penix, and Cousins did not appear on the injury report for the remainder of the season.
Fontenot also suggested that the plan right now is for Cousins to remain in Atlanta as the backup to Penix. Cousins would be an absurdly pricy backup, but it would also cost the Falcons $65m in dead cap to cut him before June 1, 2025, or they could divide that cap hit over two years by making Cousins a post-June 1 cut, but that’s still a LOT of dead cap.
Cousins does have a no-trade clause in his contract, but it seems likely that he’d waive it if it meant the difference between being a backup in Atlanta or a starter elsewhere. The Falcons would obviously have to agree to any trade terms for a deal to get done.
We’ll see what happens, but wasting that much cap space on a backup quarterback is simply not good team-building, and Cousins’ tendency to spill the beans (which also earned the Falcons a fine and the loss of a 2025 fifth-round draft pick for tampering last offseason) isn’t exactly motivation to keep him in Atlanta.