Schefter Sees Major Sticking Point in Cousins Trade

The Atlanta Falcons failed to find a trade partner during the 2025 NFL Draft for quarterback Kirk Cousins. There is no shortage of reports about potential trade partners and what the Falcons could want in return for the 36-year old signal caller.

On Tuesday’s episode of The Adam Schefter Podcast, Schefter thinks the sticking point is that the Falcons are requiring teams to take on a significant portion of Cousins’ contract.

“It’s gonna take some money. The Falcons, despite what they’ve said, have asked other teams to pay some of his contract,” Schefter said. “And I know that they denied that they asked for $20 million from a team, but I went back to that team and they said, ‘Yes, no, that’s accurate.’ So, just for the record, it is accurate that they asked for $20 million initially, and they do want teams to pay a certain guaranteed portion of Kirk Cousins’ contract before they trade him.”

Following the draft, who is still interested?

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network went on Pat McAfee’s show and thinks the Falcons options have slimmed following the draft.

“I was keeping track, trying to figure out, if he leaves Atlanta where might he go? I think if your good friend Aaron Rodgers does not go to Pittsburgh, I think that would be a possibility,” Rapoport said.

“But it feels to me that their other possibilities, kind of don’t exist. People talked about the Vikings, OK, they traded for Sam Howell. People talked about maybe the Browns, I don’t know if you guys know this, but they drafted a second quarterback in Shedeur Sanders,” Rapoport continued. “So, I don’t think he’s going there.”

“So, I don’t think Cleveland is a spot for him any more. The more this goes, I kind of think he’s going to be the Falcons’ backup. There’s no source on that, because the Falcons have told us this from the beginning.”

“It’s just we kind of like… didn’t believe them it feels like. But, he’s got family in Atlanta. He’s got a no-trade clause. I’m not sure he’s going to go anywhere unless something crazy happens where he’d be able to go be the starter.”

What’s the current situation on Cousins?

Bleacher Report outlines where the Falcons are with Cousins and they might need to make an adjustment to their demands if they can’t move him, especially since they didn’t make a deal on NFL Draft Weekend, when most trades tend to go down.

“The Falcons signed Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract prior to the 2024 season. Unfortunately, the partnership was ill-fated from the start after Atlanta used the No. 8 pick in the 2024 draft to select quarterback Michael Penix Jr.,” writes Bleacher Report.

“In 14 starts, Cousins threw a career-high 16 interceptions, which led the entire NFL. He was benched for the final three games and replaced by Penix as the starting quarterback, and the Falcons committed to forging ahead with the youngster for the 2025 campaign.

“Instead of releasing Cousins and losing him for nothing, Atlanta chose to explore trading him. However, that has proven difficult without many quarterback-needy teams on the market.

“It could be a while before the Falcons find a landing spot for Cousins amid their financial constraints, so the 36-year-old will be backing up Penix for the time being.”

It was reported during the draft that the Falcons were content to go into the season with Cousins as their starter, but it’s not clear that anyone actually believes that.