{"id":761332,"date":"2026-02-19T00:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/761332\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T00:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:30:21","slug":"nfc-notes-kirk-cousins-d-j-wonnum-falcons-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/761332\/","title":{"rendered":"NFC Notes: Kirk Cousins, D.J. Wonnum, Falcons, Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Kendall of The Athletic<\/a> mentions that the Falcons could still release and re-sign QB Kirk Cousins<\/a> if the veteran gets no interest elsewhere.
\nKendall does not foresee owner Arthur Blank wanting to pay Cousins a $67.9 million bonus if he\u2019s on the roster March 13th.<\/p>\n

Panthers pass rusher D.J. Wonnum<\/a>\u2018s contract was officially voided on Monday. (OTC<\/a>)
\nJoe Person of The Athletic<\/a> notes that veteran DT A\u2019Shawn Robinson<\/a> could be cut due to his salary, certainly not his production. Carolina signed DL Tershawn Wharton<\/a> to a three-year, $45 million contract, and cutting Robinson in the final year of his deal would create $10.5 million in cap room with $2.1 million in dead money.
\nPerson also adds that the team could wind up asking Robinson to take a paycut, as he is one of the league\u2019s better interior linemen and continues to have productive seasons each year.<\/p>\n

Carolina found some late-round rookies and undrafted players that played big roles in the last few years like WR Jalen Coker<\/a>, WR Jimmy Horn<\/a> Jr. and TE Mitchell Evans<\/a>. Panthers director of college scouting Jared Kirksey knows how important it is to keep having deep rookie classes of contributors to help carry the team\u2019s momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have that same type of production output from each draft class,\u201d Kirksey said, via Mike Kaye of the Charlotte Observer<\/a>. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just focusing on staying on point with getting the right player and getting the right person. And that\u2019s just staying true to our values of what we look for in a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirksey outlined the importance of who each player is beyond what they can do on the football field. He spoke on their desire for players who are driven for success and strive to be a good teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of that process is knowing what you\u2019re getting as far as the person, first. Knowing the person, because what the person is going to let the player do is unlock the talent. Part of that is like the wiring of the player, because the wiring is either going to halt or it\u2019s going to let that talent succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want players to be driven to want to be good, want to be a good teammate,\u201d Kirksey said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s part of our process, is building a culture that players play for each other, play for their coaches, and play for the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?<\/p>\n

Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Kendall of The Athletic mentions that the Falcons could still release and re-sign QB Kirk Cousins if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[27672,23809,235,260,2567,19560,7,3545,108642,15150,294,1179,6,236,14639],"class_list":{"0":"post-761332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-ashawn-robinson","9":"tag-arthur-blank","10":"tag-carolina","11":"tag-carolina-panthers","12":"tag-carolinapanthers","13":"tag-d-j-wonnum","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-jalen-coker","16":"tag-jared-kirksey","17":"tag-jimmy-horn","18":"tag-kirk-cousins","19":"tag-mitchell-evans","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-panthers","22":"tag-tershawn-wharton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116094477265583601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761332","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=761332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}