Turf Show Times
Matthew Stafford’s back injury has not gone away yet and may linger for the entire season, if not ending in surgery, but when you scan NFL depth charts for quarterback help at the conclusion of training camp, no names will stand out as better options than Jimmy Garoppolo. No names except for one and Kirk Cousins will either be one of the weirdest backups in the league at the start of the season or as the shocking trade right before Week 1.
The Atlanta Falcons have been hanging onto Cousins and his $27 million salary for the entire season because it’s guaranteed money, but also because they’re waiting for a dire situation that forces someone to overpay in a trade. Wouldn’t you know it, the Rams have a potential situation developing at quarterback and the Falcons have two former Sean McVay coaches — Raheem Morris and Zac Robinson — teaching Cousins a playbook that would strongly resemble the one he’d have in L.A..
Cousins has also spoke at length about how important McVay was to his development and success when the two were paired together in Washington at the start of both of their careers.
Even if you think it would be a huge mistake for the Rams to trade for Kirk Cousins, you have to admit that the longer this Stafford situation goes on, the more often we will hear rumors linking L.A. to the only backup in the league who has a winning record with more than 150 career starts.
It’s hard to imagine that the Falcons will want anything more than financial relief if a team is willing to trade for Cousins. The team owes him a guaranteed $27.5 million salary, money that comes off of their salary cap if the Rams take the bait.
This also implies that the Rams wouldn’t have to sacrifice any good draft picks — maybe a day three pick swap in 2026 — and would expect Atlanta to give them salary relief on Cousins or take back a bad contract in return. Rumors before the draft stated that the Falcons wanted $20 million in salary relief but that teams were only offering to take on $10 million.
In other words, the Rams might expect the Falcons to pay $17.5 million of Cousins’ 2025 salary, leaving $10 million. The only really bad contract that L.A. could trade is Colby Parkinson’s, which is $5.25 million.
Maybe the Rams would trade Parkinson to the Falcons for Cousins and pay $15 million of his 2025 salary. The Rams are estimated to have $19.5 million in 2025 cap space right now.
Although Cousins struggled in his last 5 starts prior to being benched for Michael Penix (1 TD/9 INT), he was pretty decent before that and was also dealing with multiple injuries: The Achilles tear that he was recovering from and then an elbow injury suffered during the season that immediately preceded his downfall.
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