ESPN's Bill Barnwell made a list of his biggest winners and losers from the 2024 NFL draft and, to nobody's surprise, Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback Kirk Cousins was one of the losers. In the article, Barnwell outlines a few exit strategies that the Falcons take to get out of the crazy quarterback situation they've created by drafting Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall.
According to Cousins' contract, he should be in Atlanta through the 2025 season with a natural pivot point in 2026.
Cousins is guaranteed $100 million on the four-year deal he signed in March. He already has received a $50 million signing bonus. He has a $12.5 million base salary this year, a $27.5 million base salary next year and a $10 million roster bonus in 2026 that guarantees if he's on the 2025 roster. As long as he wants to keep playing, he'll collect a minimum of $100 million for two years of work or $135 million for three years.
Will that all be with the Falcons? First and foremost, that's up to Cousins. He has a full no-trade clause, which means he can force the franchise to pay him that $100 million over two years before moving on to Penix for the 2026 season. Naturally, while Cousins might not want to move on to another city after just landing in Atlanta, the veteran might also not want to sit in 2025 behind Penix if the Falcons are ready to move on and there's an exciting opportunity available elsewhere.
That is the ideal situation, but let's say that Penix impresses enough to where Atlanta wants to get the 24-year-old on the field sooner rather than later, is there a way the Falcons can get out of the Cousins deal at season's end? According to Barnwell, yes, but it will be complicated.
If Cousins agrees to a trade, it would be easy; Atlanta would actually save $2.5 million as part of that deal, and while it would have paid him $62.5 million for one year of work, it wouldn't be on the hook for the remaining $37.5 million in guarantees. The Falcons would have $37.5 million in dead money on their cap, but we've seen teams grown more comfortable eating that sort of dead money if they're ready to move on from a quarterback.
Cutting Cousins after 2024 would be more difficult to swallow, especially from the financial side. The Falcons would be on the hook for $27.5 million guaranteed in 2025 and basically be paying him to play for the minimum elsewhere, as Russell Wilson is now doing in Pittsburgh. They would get out of the $10 million commitment for 2026, but in addition to spreading $65 million in dead money over two years, they would have paid Cousins $90 million for one year of football as a lame-duck signal-caller. That couldn't have been their plan when they signed him.
Being the next iteration of the Denver Broncos quarterback situation doesn't sound like a fun proposition, but if Penix comes in and gives the Falcons stability for the next decade-plus, who cares what it took to get him on the field?
