All 49ers

Why the 49ers Could Sign Kirk Cousins if the Falcons Release Him

It's not out of the realm of possibilitiy that the 49ers could have both Purdy and Cousins on the roster next season.

Grant Cohn

Dec 16, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) warms up before a game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Dec 16, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) warms up before a game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images / Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
In this story:

SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers most likely will be in the quarterback market this offseason and Kirk Cousins seems to be available. Will they get him?

The Falcons just benched Cousins a few months after signing him to a four-year, $180 million contract because he's 36, he leads the league in interceptions and they have a rookie quarterback they drafted in Round 1 this year. His time in Atlanta is done.

The Falcons most likely would like to trade Cousins, but no one wants his awful contract, so Atlanta probably will have to release him and eat a ton of dead cap space. That's what the Broncos had to do with Russell Wilson this year. Which means the Falcons probably will pay for Cousins to play elsewhere next season.

Enter the 49ers. Their starting quarterback, Brock Purdy, reportedly wants $60 million per season. If the 49ers offer him closer to $40 million per season and he turns them down, they might want to sign another quarterback just in case Purdy decides to hold out. And the 49ers probably could sign Cousins for the league minimum considering the Falcons have to pay him $27.5 million in 2025.

It's not out of the realm of possibilitiy that the 49ers could have both Purdy and Cousins on the roster next season while both get paid roughly $1 million for the year. Talk about a bargain. The 49ers would have one of the cheapest quarterback rooms in the league and it would be a big improvement over what they have now.

Download and follow The Cohn Zohn Podcast.

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Home/News