If Aaron Rodgers doesn’t end up the 2025 quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, many assume that they will turn their attention to another veteran quarterback to add experience and competition to the room. The latest buzz is centered on Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins, with ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reporting he is on the Steelers’ radar. If you ask Stephen A. Smith, that is a terrible idea for his favorite team.
“You mean Kirk Cousins that threw nine interceptions and one touchdown over the last five games? You mean that Kirk Cousins?” Smith said via First Take this morning. “I don’t have any faith in Kirk Cousins. Hell no. There’s nothing that excites me, that enamors me, that tickles me in any way about Kirk Cousins being a Pittsburgh Steeler. Nothing at all.”
Smith makes a living on his flair for the dramatic, but his opinion is one that seems to be shared by a majority of the Pittsburgh fan base.
If this was two or three years ago before his Achilles injury, anybody would have signed up for the 33-year-old version of Cousins who made the Pro Bowl with 4,547 passing yards and 29 TD passes. But those days seem well behind him following an abysmal first year in Atlanta after Cousins signed a $100 million guaranteed deal last offseason.
Had cut the Falcons him, he would have been in a similar situation to Russell Wilson last year, where the Steelers could have paid him next to nothing with the Falcons picking up the rest of his tab. The Falcons instead opted to hang onto Cousins and dangle him as trade bait. The Steelers seem like the only hope of that gamble paying off for the Falcons, who will otherwise have to keep him as a very expensive backup to Michael Penix Jr.
To be fair to Cousins, he was coming off an Achilles injury, just like Aaron Rodgers, in 2023. A lot of the talk surrounding Rodgers has been about how long those injuries take to fully heal. That same logic should be applied to Cousins as well.
The difference is that Rodgers is a free agent who publicly announced he will play for $10 million whereas Cousins would need to be traded for with a potentially hefty price tag on his salary split with the Falcons.
The Steelers have been trying to overcome their playoff failures. It doesn’t seem to make sense to add a quarterback who is 1-3 with just four playoff appearances in 13 seasons.
Would Cousins be that much better than Mason Rudolph? The Steelers might value his experience and what he has accomplished in his career, but the juice might not be worth the squeeze if Rudolph can play at or above his level.
