Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports activities.
The Atlanta Falcons paid Kirk Cousins a four-year, $180 million contract lower than one 12 months in the past — and are most likely prepared to chop ties after 14 video games.
There’s a Wild Principle about Kirk Cousins
Atlanta is on faucet to start out Michael Penix Jr. in 2025, that means, sure, it just about set $180 million on fireplace in entrance of a nationwide viewers.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports activities.
And in keeping with SI.com, Cousins’ subsequent employer could possibly be the Miami Dolphins. Conor Orr printed a daring prediction per group this week, and Cousins-to-Miami represented the massive Dolphins principle.
“The Dolphins will sign Kirk Cousins, and he’ll eventually wrest the starting job away from Tua Tagovailoa during the 2025 season. Cousins is a coveted asset among the Shanahan-ites for his decisiveness and processing skills,” Orr wrote.
Usually, in a scenario like Cousins’, his present group would commerce him to try to assuage a number of the monetary ache. However with Cousins, the veteran passer has a no-trade clause in his contract, muddying all prospects of a financially sound decision.
Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports activities.
Orr added, “Much like Aaron Rodgers coming off the broken thumb finale in Green Bay, Cousins is a bit of a distressed asset who, in my opinion, still has some good football ahead of him. Unlike the Falcons, Mike McDaniel and the Dolphins can find a way to work him into the dynamic run game.”
Cousins spoke with NFL.com earlier this month, some 5 weeks earlier than free company kicks off. The ex-Vikings signal-caller appeared to know his time in Atlanta was restricted and said his well being for 2025 is the first focus in the intervening time.
“I definitely feel like I have a lot of good football left in me. Time will tell. It’s still kind of uncertain. We’ll get to March and know a lot more. But I think the focus for me really is getting healthy. That’s really my focus is I gotta get healthy,” Cousins stated about his subsequent steps.
Cousins’ Falcons began 6-3 in 2024 earlier than collapsing altogether and lacking the postseason by one sport. Atlanta even benched Cousins for Penix Jr., and he’ll begin Week 1 of 2025, not Cousins.
The 36-year-old additionally elaborated on his well being: “I’m no good to the Falcons, I’m no good to a team, if I’m not feeling really good. That’s really where my focus has been through January and February now that the season has wound down, really taking all the time I can to get my body feeling really good.”
Stephen Lew-Imagn Photographs.
If Atlanta cuts or trades Cousins — that’s the expectation — his subsequent group will onboard him for affordable. The deal will resemble Russell Wilson’s final 12 months in Pittsburgh.
“We were 6-3, was playing well, doing a lot of good things, even if the right ankle wasn’t perfect. Nobody’s perfect in this league. We’re never feeling 100 percent. So it didn’t really affect me too much, but then against the Saints [in Week 10], I got hit pretty good in my right shoulder and elbow. From there, kinda dealing with that, it was something I was working through. Just never could get it really to where I wanted it,” Cousins stated, glancing again at 2024 and his well being.
On the Miami angle, the Dolphins might signal Cousins for a small contract and hedge the wager in opposition to Tagovailoa, who is sort of injury-prone. That’s the working principle, anyway.
Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports activities
In any other case, the Cleveland Browns seem to be the frequent sense touchdown spot for Cousins, as Kevin Stefanski is the pinnacle coach there, and he and Cousins crossed paths as Vikings workers in 2018 and 2019. Cleveland will probably be with out Deshaun Watson in 2025 after a torn Achilles reaggravation.
It’s most likely extra probably that Cousins turns into a Brown than a Dolphin, though Orr’s daring prediction is intriguing.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the College of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his every day YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The present options friends, evaluation, and opinion on all issues associated to the purple group, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates again to 1996. Listed responsible pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doorways (the band). He follows the NBA as carefully because the NFL.
All statistics supplied by Professional Soccer Reference / Stathead; all contractual info supplied by OverTheCap.com.
