The Atlanta Falcons will likely trade quarterback Kirk Cousins, but the 36-year-old wants to wait until after the draft to avoid another scenario like 2024.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins has made his intentions clear to the team's management: he doesn't want to be in a place where he can't start in 2025.
Cousins has also made another decision, this time about the timing of any potential exit.
According to Sports Illustrated insider Albert Breer, Cousins and his camp is considering slow playing his next move and not waiving his no-trade clause until after the 2025 NFL draft, which runs from April 24-26 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
"Why would Cousins block a trade to a place where he can start? My understanding (is) it would be chiefly to avoid the situation he found himself in last April when he was blindsided by Atlanta’s decision to take Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth pick," Breer wrote. "And that could be where the draft position of the aforementioned teams comes into play."
Breer noted the 36-year-old Cousins's landing spot is partially dependent on where free agent Aaron Rodgers chooses. Two of the three teams pursuing Rodgers -- the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants and Cleveland Browns -- will still have a vacant spot under center, and Breer said he expects them to have "at least some interest."
But if the Rodgers-less teams add a quarterback during the draft, Cousins may be left without a seat -- and an opportunity to get at least a one-year stint as a starter. It's a risk he appears interested in accepting.
"Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, Cousins has already signaled to teams that he would likely want to wait to see what happens over draft weekend before accepting a trade," Breer wrote. "In a way, that should also work for the teams, allowing them to go through a full draft process.
"And make decisions on guys such as Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Ole Miss’s Jaxson Dart independent of Cousins’s destination."
The Falcons have been outspoken about their willingness to keep Cousins as their backup signal caller, and Breer noted that owner Arthur Blank doesn't want to pay $90 to $100 million for a single year of Cousins.
As such, Atlanta needs another team to take on at least some of Cousins's contract, all the while receiving viable draft pick compensation.
So, the Falcons' direction with Cousins, who was benched after 14 starts for Penix last season, remains uncertain. The timing appears set -- likely after the draft -- but the specifics may be finalized sooner.
"One thing I have heard Cousins’s camp would be amenable to is working out the particulars of a trade ahead of the draft, on the contingency that a team trading for him not take one in the first round," Breer wrote. Of course, that would require working the money and compensation out ahead of time.
"And a lot can happen between now and the end of April."
Cousins, who signed a four-year contract worth up to $180 million with the Falcons last March, learned of Atlanta's decision to draft Penix while driving home from the team's draft party.
Now almost one year removed, Cousins's emotions from that night still resemble a freshly cut wound -- and are driving his next step.
