Ex-Vikings QB Kirk Cousins Gets More Bad News After Falcons Benching

The Atlanta Falcons shelved quarterback Kirk Cousins ahead of their Week 15 matchup with the New York Giants, the first time in years Cousins was a QB2 while healthy. 

And things only got worse from there. 

Not only did rookie signal caller Michael Penix Jr. play well enough to keep the Falcons' starting job this weekend against the Washington Commanders -- and presumably for the rest of the season, as well as into 2025 -- ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Atlanta will either trade or cut Cousins ahead of a $10 million roster bonus he's owed on March 17. 

The questions that remain are which teams might give Cousins a shot, and can he resurrect his career next year at the age of 37? 

James Palmer of Bleacher Report heaped even more bad news atop the pile Thursday when he reported that personnel within the Falcons organization are saying that Cousins has "fallen off a cliff."

"They believe he can't play the position physically anymore," Palmer said on the Dec. 26 edition of his podcast. "They believed he was unplayable."

The sliver of good news for Cousins is that Palmer believes he will catch on somewhere over the offseason, though not via a trade, as any franchise dealing for Cousins would have to pick up a $27.5 million bill for the QB in 2025.  

"[Cousins] will have a market," Palmer continued. "He could wind up in a very similar situation as Russell Wilson was this year."

The Denver Broncos released Wilson in the offseason after signing him to a monster deal just a couple of years before, eating the vast majority of a nearly $40 million bill for the quarterback in 2024. 

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers inked Wilson to a league minimum of $1.2 million in 2024, taking minimal risk and garnering legitimate reward as the team is playoff bound in January. 

Whichever team signs Cousins will be able to do so at a league minimum as well, assuming no franchise trades for him first. That salary will come off the $27.5 million Atlanta owes the QB, though the Falcons will have to pay the balance. 

Those circumstances essentially render the risk of signing Cousins as a $1 million flier on a quarterback the team can bench or release at any point without incurring any real damage to its salary cap. As such, there will likely be multiple suitors come March.