Dec 4, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) looks on after the game against the New York Jets at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports.
Free agency doesn’t formally start for one week, but Kirk Cousins may be in his final days as a Minnesota Viking.
The rumor mill regarding Cousins has run wild in the last month, linking him to every quarterback-needy team imaginable, like the Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, and Las Vegas Raiders. But no rumor has blared as loud lately as those involving the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta will embark on 2024 with a new head coach, Raheem Morris, and if the rumor mill is accurate, Cousins will lead that squad in September.
Cousins-to-Falcons theories hit a fever pitch on Monday night when Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio suggested a deal was imminent.
With a vague description, teetering on word salad, Florio wrote Monday evening, “We can’t get into the specifics, for now. But we’re getting very credible indications that Cousins is seriously considering moving his family to Atlanta. Which would mean, obviously, that he’d be signing with the Falcons. The Falcons have always been the top alternative to the Vikings for Cousins, who becomes an unrestricted free agent next Wednesday.”
Morris was the Washington Commanders’ defensive backs coach from 2012 to 2014, also known as Cousins’ first three seasons in the NFL. The two were coworkers. Atlanta’s 2023 campaign was undone by poor quarterback performance, causing the dismissal of head coach Arthur Smith and sending the Falcons to either free agency or the draft for a new QB1. Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke didn’t get the job done in Smith’s last hurrah.
Florio added, “The attraction for Cousins, beyond the contract, would be a plethora of great skill-position players — and the fact that the NFC South is currently weaker than the NFC North. The Vikings still have six days of exclusive negotiating rights with Cousins. If they want to keep him, they could make an offer he won’t refuse. Of course, it might be too late for that.”
Cousins would fit wonderfully in Atlanta. The Falcons possess offensive weapons itching for full deployment, a tactic inexplicably held back by the aforementioned Smith. Put simply, Cousins could feed Kyle Pitts, Bijan Robinson, and Drake London all day on Sundays — every Sunday. Some considered it a crime, mainly fantasy football managers, for Smith to blatantly ignore his playmakers as a habit.
Overall, there’s a coach-player connection between Cousins and Morris, a Vikings team that may not unload $45 million per year on Cousins’ next contract, a Falcons squad that desperately needs a productive passer like Cousins, family ties for Cousins to Georgia — and Bijan Robinson sideways lobbying for Cousins on his team.
Robinson said this a couple of weeks ago:
Cousins will turn 36 in August and can probably fetch $40-$50 million per year from the Falcons.
The Vikings haven’t started a non-Cousins quarterback in a Week 1 game since 2017. A new era, indeed, if the Florio reporting is correct.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
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