It looks like the Falcons are prepared to eat the looming roster bonus to keep or trade Cousins.
The Kirk Cousins saga may not last all that long in the end—it has been less than a year since he signed, and he could be moved in the coming weeks—but it certainly feels like it’s dragging on for a while.
The latest chapter comes with a Tom Pelissero report that Cousins met with Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank on Wednesday, a report fellow insider Albert Breer echoed on Friday. As Breer puts it, this was about Cousins’ future, and presumably whether he’ll be released, traded, or kept in 2025.
Sources: QB Kirk Cousins asked for, and got, a meeting with Falcons owner Arthur Blank on his future. Blank and Cousins had that meeting Wednesday night—the QB wants to go to a place where he can start in 2025.
The Falcons brass has said it’d do what’s best for the team at QB.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 7, 2025
Perhaps Cousins gained some clarity in that meeting about the team’s plans for him, but as Pelissero reports, there’s no sense that Atlanta is budging on keeping him or trading him instead of releasing him. While the team has been vocal about that, the looming March 17 deadline for that $10 million roster bonus has made many across the NFL landscape believe it’s only a matter of time until he’s cut.
But with a handful of starting quarterback vacancies out there and the team taking a 2025 bath on his contract one way or another, the Falcons are clearly still hoping they’ll be able to trade him, and Cousins may be willing to waive his no trade clause if he can land with a team where he can start. Those discussions haven’t happened yet, per insider Dianna Russini, but Atlanta’s clearly banking on it down the line if they want to hold on to him. While Cousins would undoubtedly like to be released outright so he can choose his landing spot and enjoy a more robust market given the tiny salary he’d command while still being paid by the Falcons, the team has said all along that they don’t see any upside in cutting him and appear ready to stand by it.
Teams have reached out to the Falcons to see if they have any plans to cut him and they’ve been told no…for now.
No trade discussions have been brought up. https://t.co/aUpWeJ3zAw
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) March 7, 2025
There’s still a little over a week to go until that roster bonus is due—and it’s worth noting that it hits the 2026 cap—and the early waves of free agency should help clarify the quarterback picture across the league in a way that might benefit both Cousins and the Falcons. Atlanta will be watching closely to see what teams—the Giants, the Seahawks, the Jets, etc.—with major needs at the position are left without a potential veteran starter ahead of the draft, especially if those teams aren’t enamored with the first round quarterbacks. That may be where Cousins’ narrow market materializes, and if there’s a chance to go to a team where he’ll be the unquestioned starter for at least a little while, perhaps the veteran quarterback will jump at the chance to ensure he’s not holding a clipboard through the entire 2025 campaign.
All we really know is that the team is inclined to hold on to Cousins for now unless they can trade him and Cousins wants to go somewhere where he can start; whether both sides can get what they want will remain an open question for at least a little bit longer.