Popular Website Posts Wild Kirk Cousins Theory
Kirk Cousins has worked for the Atlanta Falcons for seven weeks. It’s not going well. At all.
Popular Website Posts Wild Kirk Cousins Theory
So far, the Falcons have been accused of tampering with Cousins, which he point-blank and accidentally admitted at his introductory press conference on March 13. Not ideal. Last week, Atlanta drafted quarterback Michael Penix Jr. as Cousins’ eventual replacement while letting Cousins know their plan just minutes beforehand. Naturally, he didn’t seem enthused.
And because of the new Penix Jr. angle, one popular website, Pro Football Talk, claims Cousins could demand a trade. This is truly an unbelievable threesome of events at Cousins’ third NFL destination, teetering on trainwreck.
PFT’s Mike Florio wrote this week, “The other question, beyond his next press conference, is what he’ll do? Will the presence of Penix prompt Cousins to show up early, stay late, and actually work on Tuesdays? Or will he do the minimum, reasoning that if the Falcons aren’t using their draft picks to maximize the team’s chances in 2024 and 2025, why should he work for free? Cousins might decide he wants out.”
It would be incredibly odd for Atlanta to trade Cousins before he started a game and equally as strange for a historically non-confrontational Cousins to upset team chemistry by squawking.
Florio doubled down, “Technically, he could be traded after June 1 with $12.5 million in dead money this year and $37.5 million in 2025. If traded after the season, the charge in 2025 would be $37.5 million; his cap hit if on the team next year is due to be $40 million. There’s no way Penix will sit, as G.M. Terry Fontenot has suggested, for four or five years. It’s three at the very most, one at a minimum (barring injury to Cousins). The most likely is two.”
After the Penix Jr. selection, Cousins’ agent, Mike McCartney, revealed via text message: “It was a big surprise. We had no idea this was coming. The truth is the whole league had no idea this was coming. We got no heads up. Kirk got a call from the Falcons when they were on the clock. That was the first we heard. It never came up in any conversation.”
Florio is onto something that the Penix Jr. plan — the guy is old for a rookie quarterback — doesn’t make much sense with Cousins scheduled to be QB1 for four years. In fact, that’s what the world thinks outside of the Falcons’ front office.
But to think Cousins will get loud and demand a trade is severely unlikely.
Florio also advanced different Justin Jefferson trade theories during the draft’s lead-up. Those, of course, did not come to fruition.
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).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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