Falcons Believe Kirk Cousins 'Couldn't Play Physically' According to NFL Insider

According to NFL Insider James Palmer, the Atlanta Falcons believe Kirk Cousins time in the NFL could be over.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins was replaced by Michael Penix Jr. after the worst stretch of games in his career. / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Falcons made the decision last week to bench Kirk Cousins in favor of rookie Michael Penix Jr. According to NFL insider James Palmer of Bleacher Report (B/R), the Falcons believe the problems are much deeper than a slump by Cousins, and that he might be finished as an NFL quarterback.

“If you talk to anybody in Atlanta, they will tell you he has just fallen off a cliff, which does happen to some older quarterbacks,” Palmer said on his podcast with B/R. “They believe he can't play the position physically anymore. He just couldn’t play it physically any more in the eyes of the Falcons. That bled into some issues in the way he played the position mentally as well.

“It led into a position where they believed he was unplayable.”

The Denver Broncos established a template for this scenario earlier this year. Head coach Sean Payton believed the team couldn’t move forward with Russell Wilson, and he made the decision to get out from under his contract as quickly as possible.

The Broncos took on a record $85-million dead-cap hit to waive Wilson, whose contract extension had yet to begin. They took on $53 million in dead money this year with the $32-million balance counting towards 2025. However, Wilson was scheduled to have a $57-million cap hit in 2025, so the Broncos are saving $25-million in cap space next year with Wilson off the roster.

Cousins, like Wilson, has offset language in his contract. Any money he earns with another team in 2025, even if he’s cut, would count towards the dead money in Atlanta. Naturally, Wilson had no incentive to make the Pittsburgh Steelers pay money to the Broncos, so he signed for the $1.2-million league minimum.

The Falcons situation isn’t quite as bad. They’re scheduled to take on $65 million in dead money when they move on from Cousins. That’s still the second-most dead money in history behind Wilson. There are serious-cap ramifications for paying a player $90 million for eight months of work.

Of course, No. 3 was Matt Ryan’s contract with the Falcons with a then-record $40 million in dead money in 2022.

In the span of three years, the Falcons will have taken dead-money hits on two-different quarterbacks in excess of $100 million. 

Will Cousins have a market in 2025? Teams will have to do their due diligence on Cousins’s health, something it seems the Falcons failed to do properly prior to inking his deal. ESPN reporter Jeremy Fowler believes Cousins and Kevin Stefanski could be a cheap match in Cleveland.

“The Kirk Cousins situation in Atlanta could be manna from heaven for Cleveland,” Fowler said on the This is Football podcast. “It’s Russell Wilson all over again. Kirk Cousins can operate Kevin Stefanski’s offense. We’ve seen it in Minnesota; he’s had success. It just makes a lot of sense.”    

After the Broncos moved on from Wilson, they drafted Bo Nix in the first round. They’re 9-6 and can clinch a playoff spot on Saturday afternoon while absorbing a record-dead-cap hit. A big reason why is the play of Nix whose rookie deal offsets most of the cost of eating Wilson’s contract.

The Falcons are hoping to follow that template next season when they take on another huge dead-cap number. The Michael Penix Jr. era has begun, and he’ll get his first-big test against the Washington Commanders on Sunday night against former Falcons head coach Dan Quinn. 

Penix’s $5.2-million cap hit in 2025 will help ease the pain of the Cousins contract, but that’s $65 million going to Cousins that won’t be invested into the team the next-two seasons. 

If Penix plays well, like Nix has this season, the money won’t be nearly as big of an issue. He can get a jump on 2025 by locking up the NFC South with two more wins, and that starts Sunday night in Washington.