NFL Trade Rumors
Falcons HC Raheem Morris said QB Kirk Cousins wasn’t at voluntary OTAs today, per Cameron Wolfe.
Cousins had been in attendance for at least some of the offseason work prior to this, so this is a shift in stance.
The veteran is currently No. 2 on the depth chart after the Falcons couldn’t work out a trade they were satisfied with this offseason. Atlanta’s hesitancy to eat a big portion of the $27.5 million guaranteed salary Cousins was owed in 2025 scuttled any potential deal, and rather than cut their losses the Falcons allowed another $10 million next year to become guaranteed.
Now both sides are running out of options, with the Steelers the only other semi-realistic option at the moment if their other plans at the position fall through.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler thinks that’s the only chance for Cousins to get a change of scenery before the year starts.
“I had some conversations with people this week that led me to believe that Cousins is at the very least on the Steelers’ radar, if something were fall through on Rodgers. Now, here’s how they could make that happen. Cousins has $37.5 million in guarantees between this year and next year. Somebody’s on the hook for that, whether it’s Atlanta or someone else. So to facilitate a trade, Atlanta would need a team to offset some of that money, whether it’s $4 million, $20 million, whatever it is, but the feeling around the league is that Atlanta has not been willing to budge on this. They haven’t shown a lot of interest in trading Cousins, it would take a hefty price tag for another team to wiggle that out. As one source told me, if they were willing to take a small percentage, like let’s say $7 or $8 million of that money, a deal would be done by now. There was interest earlier in the offseason. Right now, Pittsburgh might be the only hope for Cousins or he’s stuck in Atlanta.”
Cousins, 36, is a former fourth-round pick of Washington back in 2012. He played out the final year of his rookie contract before being franchised in back-to-back seasons.
Cousins later departed in free agency for a three-year, $84 million contract with the Vikings. He was entering the final year of his contract in 2020 when he agreed to a two-year, $66 million contract extension. In 2021, he agreed to a new one-year, $35 million contract extension that was also fully guaranteed.
He was in the final year of that deal in 2023 and was testing the market as an unrestricted free agent when signing with the Falcons this offseason. He inked a four-year, $180 million contract with $100 million guaranteed.
In 2024, Cousins appeared in 14 games for the Falcons and completed 66.9 percent of his passes for 3,508 yards, 18 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.
We’ll have more on Cousins as the news is available.
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