Falcons tell Cousins to roll out.
Less than a calendar year after making Kirk Cousins their vaunted free agent addition of the 2024 NFL offseason, the Atlanta Falcons have benched the veteran quarterback indefinitely, turning the keys to the car over to No. 8 overall pick rookie Michael Penix Jr. with a potential postseason berth hanging in the balance.
“After review we have made the decision Michael Penix will be the Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback moving forward,” coach Raheem Morris said in a statement released by the team. “This was a football decision and we are fully focused on preparing the team for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants.”
Earlier this month, Penix stated that he was behind Cousins 100% and believed he would turn things around and get back on the right track. But he reiterated that he would be ready, willing and able to take the field if his number was called.
“I have to be [ready] because you never know when the opportunity [comes],” Penix said earlier this month. “So, I always stay ready, but at the end of the day, like I said, it’s not up to me. I just got to continue to be ready, continue to stay ready for that moment, whenever that is.”
Embed from Getty ImagesIf the Falcons have lost confidence and are not willing to put their fate in Cousins’ hands for their final three win-or-go-home matchups of the season, it obvious they do not trust him beyond 2024 as well. Here is the pickle: Can the Falcons find a way out of the massive four-year, $180 million contract they gave to the former Minnesota Vikings captain back in March?
Fortunately for the Falcons, the answer is not too complex: Yes, they can. The manner in which they do it simply depends on how much money they are willing to be on the hook for to execute Cousins’ departure, assuming of course they have no interest in going back to him at age 37, with Penix already in the fold, in 2025.
Cousins is owed a handsome $27.5 million guaranteed in 2025, however, the Falcons can spread out his post-2024 salary cap hits by designating him a post-June 1 release. Such a move after the 2024 campaign would result in a dead-cap charge of $40 million, the record for this, by the way, is $49.5 million, set by the Denver Broncos in their release of Russell Wilson, who is now playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, during the offseason, but it would not come with any catastrophic impact to Atlanta’s 2025 cap resources.
In plain English, releasing Cousins as a post-June 1 cut would not save the Falcons immediate cap space, but it would not lose them any, either. It would, however, free up the inflated $57 million cap charges he is due in the final two seasons of his contract.
The other possible but more improbable resolution would be a trade. Shipping Cousins off to another team before to June 1 would result in immediate savings of $2.5 million in 2025, while trading him after June 1, perhaps to a team in need of help thanks to an offseason injury, would instantly clear $27.5 million. The latter possibility is especially remote, because the Falcons would not benefit those massive cap savings until well after the major waves of free agency have ended. The other obstacles: Cousins may not have a large trade market considering his apparent physical decline this year after Achilles injury. And even if multiple offers did surface, he carries a no-trade clause in his contract, giving him the choice of yea or nea over any and all potential trades.
Barring a miracle return to the lineup in the Falcons’ final three games, or an unlikely playoff appearance, odds are Cousins has been one and done and played his last down in the ATL, even though he said upon signing with the club that he hoped to retire in town because that is where his wife and family are from. The organization already has a lot invested in Penix as the long-term face of the franchise, and frankly, the second the Falcons selected him No. 8 overall in April out of the University of Washington, they boldly broadcast to the rest of the league and the world that even they, despite the dazzling contract for Cousins, did not truly believe in Cousins as their true savior under center.
“You could never say there’s a [downside] to turn it over to somebody that you put a lot of investment into, somebody that you brought in here, somebody you’ve done some things with, somebody that [has] said nothing but the right things since they’ve been here,” Morris said of Penix.
Now their roll of the dice gamble has come full circle, and unless Penix falls historically flat or goes down with injury himself, it is safe to bet Cousins will prefer to pursue whatever starting jobs might be available on the open market.
