Cunningham: Falcons, Kirk Cousins may be stuck with one another unless Aaron Rodgers retires

The Steelers can’t wait forever on Rodgers. If they move on, then they’ll surely call the Falcons about Cousins. He might still be a viable starter after he’s two years removed from Achilles surgery. Cousins certainly is a better option for the Steelers than Mason Rudolph or Will Howard. They would be motivated to make an offer for Cousins if they miss out on Rodgers.

The calculation for Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot is the value of what he can get for Cousins in trade vs. Cousins’ value as a backup to Michael Penix Jr. Fontenot could use another draft pick. He only made five selections in last week’s draft — the Falcons lost one pick because of tampering violations related to Cousins — and Fontenot traded away first- and fifth-round picks in 2026 on draft night.

In the meantime, there’s no hurry for the Falcons. The situation would be more difficult if Cousins raised a ruckus about his unmet request for a trade. Cousins hasn’t said a disparaging word about the Falcons publicly. He showed up for voluntary workouts this week.

Offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said all is good with the team’s backup quarterback.

“Kirk has been great in the building, the times he’s been here,” Robinson said. “You guys know Kirk as a person. He’s not divisive. I would anticipate, when he’s here, he’ll be the best teammate for the guys, be the best for the coaches. He’ll just try to improve as a player.”

Cousins has incentives to be professional about his situation. He’s due $27.5 million in 2025, whether he’s on the roster or not, but why give the Falcons a reason to try to claw any of it back?

Teams also might be less inclined to trade for Cousins if he makes a fuss about being the backup. He may have to compete for the starting job if he lands elsewhere.

For now, the Falcons are employing Cousins as the most expensive backup in NFL history. His salary is set to count $40 million against the team’s salary cap in 2025. That figure is higher than all but five players in the NFL. All but one of them are good-to-great quarterbacks.

Dallas QB Dak Prescott ($50.5 million cap hit) is the exception. Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow ($46 million) and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson ($43.5 million) are elite. Rams QB Matthew Stafford’s ($47.5 million) performance slipped last season, but he’s still solid. Arizona’s Kyler Murray ($43.3 million) had a bounce-back year in 2024.

After Falcons team owner Arthur Blank didn’t pursue Jackson as a free agent, he said he didn’t want to commit 25% of his team’s cap to one player. Well, Baltimore will use 16% of its cap space on Jackson, a two-time MVP. The Falcons will use 14% of their cap space on Cousins, who lasted 14 games as their starter.

Fontenot’s spin is that the Falcons are using the same cap space on QBs as they’d always planned. The only thing that’s changed is which one starts. If that’s the way Fontenot wants to look at it, then he’s committing $47.2 million in cap space to the quarterback position, and his starter is unproven.

None of the four teams who’ve committed more cap space to quarterback is facing that circumstance. Only the Browns are getting less bang for their QB bucks (they saved Blank from making a huge mistake with Deshaun Watson). The Falcons are the champions of wasteful spending at the position.

My main objection to the Falcons selecting Penix with the No. 8 pick of the draft was that it was a wildly inefficient use of limited resources after they’d paid Cousins. You can argue it’s good the Falcons drafted Penix because they need him to start now. Also, this year’s group of drafted QB is underwhelming.

That argument for drafting Penix will be a lot stronger if he leads the Falcons to the playoffs. It wouldn’t change the fact that the Falcons have $40 million in cap space committed to their backup QB, while no other team has devoted more than $8 million. But it would make it matter a lot less.

The Falcons have a good (if overpaid) option at QB should Penix falter or get hurt.

Said Robinson: “For Kirk, he’s in a role that he ended the season in, as a backup, and (we) would expect him to, just like he did last year, be there for Mike and be there for anybody in the offense. … When we made the switch, everybody got on board with it then and everybody is on board with it now. Kirk is obviously a valuable player to this offense, to this team, and he is here.”

There could come a time when the Falcons decide Cousins is more valuable as a trade piece, even if it means eating a chunk of the $27.5 million owed. First, there must be a team that wants to acquire Cousins. That might be the Steelers, if Rodgers decides to retire.

If that doesn’t happen, then the Cousins and the Falcons might be stuck together.