With Penix recovering from the knee injury and a new regime, from president of football Matt Ryan to head coach Kevin Stefanski, in charge and noncommittal about the former first-round pick, there are a number of unknowns at the QB position.
Last month, Cousins agreed to a modified contract that re-worked the four-year, $180 million deal he signed in 2024, NFL Network Insider Mike Garafolo reported. The altered deal gives Atlanta salary-cap flexibility and means that Cousins will likely be a free agent by March 13.
For Cousins, a business of football Hall of Famer, the uncertainty is nothing new.
“Well, I’ve got a lot of reps,” Cousins said Friday. “There’s been a lot of years of one-year contracts, and what’s going to happen next, and will you get traded? So I guess I’ve kind of lived it. I’ve learned to be pretty open-minded. And here we are again.
“You don’t really know what’s going to happen come March. I’ve learned that February is really quiet, which is really nice. You just kind of go away and disappear and go sit on a beach and then you know that March is coming. My agent Mike McCartney has kind of always handled that. We’re on the phone a lot in March. It’s kind of been a rite of passage every March. Mike and I are talking all the time. My wife knows, ‘Mike McCartney’s calling. Can I disappear for a while?’
“But that’ll come in March and we’ll see where it goes.”
Where it goes could be to the fourth team of Cousins’ career and third in four years. Or if the new Falcons brass so choose, it could lead the QB back to Atlanta for a second chance.
If NFL interest for the veteran’s services dries up, at least he has a fallback plan. Cousins impressed in his postseason work as a studio analyst for CBS Sports, his latest foray into the media space after two seasons on Netflix’s Quarterback.