The Falcons still like Kirk Cousins \u2014 just not for anything close to $68 million.<\/p>\n
While Atlanta is expected to release the veteran quarterback in March, the team is open to retaining him on a lesser deal in a twist, according to The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Atlanta reworked Cousins\u2019 contract earlier this month<\/a> to set up his exit, and the outlet noted that the Falcons are \u201cinterested\u201d in re-signing him and it\u2019s possible the veteran could always circle back if he can\u2019t find a better situation.<\/p>\n Kirk Cousins in December 2025. AP<\/p>\n While it\u2019s hard to envision any team wanting Cousins as a starter, it\u2019s certainly possible he could prefer a backup situation with another team more than the current setup in Atlanta.<\/p>\n He arrived prior to the 2024 season on a massive four-year, $180 million deal with $100 million guaranteed only to lose his job to Michael Penix Jr. at the end of the season.<\/p>\n Cousins, 37, remained with the team due to is contract essentially preventing Atlanta from moving on and a lack of interest in the declining veteran.<\/p>\n He appeared in 10 games this year due to Penix battling injuries and posted modest stats, tallying 1,721 passing yards and 10 touchdowns to five interceptions.<\/p>\n Atlanta is set to release him since his contract now has a $67.9 million guarantee for 2027 that vests March 13, per ESPN<\/a>, and clearly the Falcons and any other team won\u2019t pay that.<\/p>\n Matt Ryan now runs the show in Atlanta. AP<\/p>\n The restructure reportedly did not affect any guaranteed money in his contract.<\/p>\n New Atlanta coach Kevin Stefanski has experience with Cousins from their time together in Minnesota, but that only carries so much weight.<\/p>\n Atlanta also has a new top football executive in ex-Falcons star Matt Ryan.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I have a previous relationship with Kirk, but I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the time yet to talk about all those types of things,\u201d Stefanski said, per The Athletic. \u201cThose conversations will come in due time.\u201d<\/p>\n Kevin Stefanski worked with Kirk Cousins in Minnesota. AP<\/p>\n Cousins could potentially aim to sign with a team that offers a potential pathway to starting or at least an organization that doesn\u2019t have an entrenched quarterback.<\/p>\n The Jets don\u2019t have a quarterback of the future at the moment, while there is uncertainty about what the Dolphins and Cardinals will due at the spot due to their underwhelming yet costly veterans. <\/p>\n If Cousins doesn\u2019t find any offers to his liking, perhaps he could call it quits after 14 years and seek a media role like plenty of other ex-quarterbacks.<\/p>\n CBS recently added him<\/a> to its \u201cThe NFL Today\u201d crew for the Divisional Round and AFC Championship games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Falcons still like Kirk Cousins \u2014 just not for anything close to $68 million. While Atlanta is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,8591,294,2859,6,2592,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-716702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-kevin-stefanski","14":"tag-kirk-cousins","15":"tag-matt-ryan","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-nfl-free-agency","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}