I hate to bring up Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins at this point of the offseason, especially with it seeming like the Pittsburgh Steelers are set on signing either QB Aaron Rodgers or QB Russell Wilson in the coming hours or days. That said, the longer the Steelers go without signing a quarterback, I wonder if Cousins’ name will get thrown around more as an option for Pittsburgh, especially if the Falcons cut him before March 17.
Here’s the deal right now with the Falcons and Cousins. Currently, Cousins has a $10 million roster bonus due in 2026, and it will become fully guaranteed on March 17, according to Over the Cap. He is also due a base salary in 2025 of $27.5 million. In short, many believe the Falcons will have no choice but to cut Cousins if they can’t trade him before March 17. If Cousins is cut, he will have a few suitors. Might the Steelers be one of those suitors if they can’t get Rodgers or Wilson signed by then? It’s certainly a plausible notion.
Could the Falcons find a team willing to trade for Cousins? I suppose that’s not totally out of the question. However, if they do find a team willing to trade for Cousins, it’s not hard to imagine an acquiring team wanting the Falcons to eat some of his 2025 base salary. Perhaps that’ll include his fully guaranteed $10 million roster bonus in 2026. Let’s put it this way: it’s hard to see a team taking on the remainder of Cousins’ contract as it sits right now.
A positive thing for a team that may be trading for Cousins is that he is under contract through 2027. However, his base salaries in 2026 and 2027 are each listed at $35 million. In short, Cousins would need to play well enough in 2025 to earn seeing at least his 2026 season. There’s obviously no guarantee that he will. Once again, the guaranteed money Cousins has on his current contract past 2025 is his 2026 roster bonus.
Ideally, the Falcons will cut Kirk Cousins and thus make him a street free agent. At that point, he would be free to negotiate with any team he chooses. At his age—he’ll turn 37 in August—Cousins probably would like to go to a team with a chance at making the playoffs in 2025. He probably wouldn’t mind playing for an experienced head coach.
Like Wilson last year, Cousins, if indeed cut, would have offsets related to the $27.5 million he is guaranteed in 2025. That would make him easy to sign at a lower base salary because of that. Last year, Wilson took the NFL minimum from the Steelers due to the Denver Broncos being on the hook for such a large amount of guaranteed money.
The Steelers do have a little history with Cousins as head coach Mike Tomlin took the former Michigan State quarterback to dinner ahead of his 2012 Pro Day.
“Yeah, Coach Tomlin and Coach Fichtner took me out to dinner the night before my Pro Day,” Cousins said several years ago, according to Jacob Klinger of Pennlive.com. “They were the only coaching staff to do that. He was the only head coach that I really related to that degree during the pre-draft process, especially around my Pro Day. And I had great respect for him and Coach Fichtner, really liked them as a coaching staff and I can see why they’ve had tremendous success consistently for many, many years.”
As far as I can tell, Cousins was not brought to Pittsburgh for a pre-draft visit back in 2012. Even so, that’s not such a big deal overall.
The Falcons took a big swing on Kirk Cousins in free agency a year ago, and they missed badly. Things went so bad for Cousins last season that he was ultimately benched in favor of then-rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Cousins started 14 games in the 2024 season on his way to completing 303 passes for 3,508 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also threw 16 interceptions and was sacked 28 times.
Quite honestly, last season, Cousins looked like a totally different quarterback than he did during his previous six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. For whatever it is worth, it should be noted that Cousins was coming off a 2023 Achilles injury in 2024. He admitted rust after his debut game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a loss in which Cousins looked immobile and threw two interceptions in an 18-10 loss.
As bad as Cousins did play in 2024, he still managed to register an ANY/A (adjusted net yards per passing attempt) stat of 6.13 for the season. That was right at the NFL average for that stat, according to Pro Football Reference. Cousins’ EPA per play of 0.065 was also slightly better than both Rodgers’ and Wilson’s last season.
Once again, Cousins will have some sort of market if the Falcons soon release him. Maybe the New York Giants or the Cleveland Browns might be interested. Heck, the Falcons might even find a team to take him off their hands via a trade. We’ll see.
The Falcons might decide to control Cousins’ trade value, however, and at least hold on to the quarterback until the trade deadline, or possibly the entire season. Remember, the Falcons top quarterback is a second-year player on a rookie contract and thus on a very low salary. As long as Cousins is not hollering to get out of Atlanta, the Falcons don’t have to cut or trade him. His salary would be hard to work around, but not impossible just the same.
In closing, I’m not advocating that the Steelers pursue Kirk Cousins. That said, if they miss out on signing Rodgers and they aren’t thrilled about re-signing Wilson, Cousins could very easily enter the Steelers’ quarterback chat as Plan C as early as next week, if not sooner. It will, however, be interesting to see if Cousins remains under contract with the Falcons past March 17.
