Resources: Falcons will transfer ahead with QB Kirk Cousins as a $27.5M backup or commerce bait

Kirk Cousins might be Michael Penix Jr.’s backup in the course of the 2025 NFL season. (Picture by way of Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photographs)It’s now not a bluff: The Atlanta Falcons are certainly transferring ahead with Kirk Cousins on their roster.Two league assets conversant in communications between Cousins and the Falcons reiterated to Yahoo Sports activities on Wednesday that the franchise will transfer ahead towards the NFL Draft with the veteran quarterback on their roster. This in spite of a $10 million 2026 roster bonus that can convert to completely assured if he’s now not launched or traded prior to Monday.Sports activities Illustrated’s Albert Breer prior to now reported that Cousins asked and gained a gathering with workforce proprietor Arthur Clean remaining week. A supply advised Yahoo Sports activities on Wednesday that since that assembly, Cousins and the Falcons have proceeded with the expectancy that he would stay at the workforce past the roster bonus closing date.After that time, the Falcons are anticipated to continue forward with Cousins as their backup quarterback at the back of Michael Penix Jr. Alternatively, a commerce choice would nonetheless stay at the desk if a suitor for Cousins emerged and the quarterback was once keen to waive his no-trade clause. If that doesn’t materialize, he would then play out the 2025 season as Penix’s backup whilst incomes $27.5 million in absolutely assured wage. After the 2025 season, the Falcons would then find a way to chop Cousins and feature the $10 million in 2026 assured cash topic to wage offsets. Necessarily, if any workforce paid Cousins greater than $10 million to play for them in 2026, the Falcons could be off the hook for the whole $10 million owed by way of Atlanta.It’s the most important construction for the league’s quarterback marketplace, in large part as a result of a couple of groups are in search of both a long-term solution or a bridge choice on the place. That incorporates the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns, who’re each having a look so as to add no less than another participant to their quarterback room — both in the course of the draft or in unfastened company.The Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants also are nonetheless looking to get to the bottom of wishes at quarterback, with Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson each in play for the ones franchises.With Cousins now anticipated to stay at the Falcons’ roster, any of the ones groups hoping to stay him at the desk as an choice will now need to grapple with a commerce negotiation that would come with how a lot wage the Falcons would pay within the tournament they have been to ship Cousins to every other workforce.