Old Friend of Vikings Could Be the Spoiler
Because of Michael Penix Jr.’s torn ACL, Kirk Cousins has led the Atlanta Falcons as QB1 in the last two months, and this weekend, he may get the chance to spoil the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ season.
Atlanta doesn’t need a miracle to matter. It needs Cousins to look competent one more time and make Tampa Bay sweat.
Cousins’ Falcons will take on the hot New Orleans Saints, and there’s a decent chance that he will control the Buccaneers’ playoff fate.
Kirk Cousins Can Ruin Tampa Bay’s Dream
A perk for Cousins in a playoff-less season.
If the Buccaneers Beat the Panthers …
It started with this announcement from Buccaneers.com‘s Scott Smith: “The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers will kick off the NFL’s Week 18 schedule with the NFC South division title on the line.”
“The NFL released the schedule for the final week of the 2025 season on Sunday evening, and it starts with the Panthers’ visit to Tampa on Saturday, January 3, with kickoff set for 4:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast by ESPN.”
Clarity? The NFC South is kind of on the line. The Panthers can win the division outright with a dub; the Buccaneers must beat the Panthers and get help from the Saints.
Falcons Can Prevent Buccaneers from Playoffs by Beating Saints
Here’s the rub for the Falcons — and Buccaneers.
If Tampa Bay scores the win over Carolina on Saturday, well, good for them. It no longer guarantees a division crown. The Buccaneers will require a Saints win to avoid a three-way tiebreaker, which would bend in the Panthers’ favor.
When the league posted the Week 18 schedule on Sunday night, most just assumed that the heavily-favored Los Angeles Rams would dispose of the Falcons on Monday Night Football. But that didn’t happen. The Falcons thickened the plot and can now play spoiler by beating the Saints.
Think of it this way: if the Buccaneers win, they will watch Sunday and need the Saints to beat the Falcons. A Falcons win, by default, will propel the Panthers to the NFC South title no matter what.
Cousins’ Production This Season
Cousins has posted some neat volume stats as of late, banking 1,541 passing yards, 9 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, and a 62.4% completion rate in seven starts. Scaled to a 17-game season, Cousins’ end-of-season numbers would look like this:
- 3,600 Passing Yards
- 22 Passing TDs
- 10 Interceptions
- 62.4% Completion
His efficiency, though, is not very admirable, ranking 23rd among all NFL quarterbacks per EPA+CPOE since taking the starting job in Week after Penix Jr.’s injury.
At age 37, Cousins is very much a middle-of-the-road option at quarterback, with the advanced metrics suggesting he’s around the league’s 10th-worst starting quarterback.
His team is 4-3 this season on his watch.
How about the Offseason?
Of course, Cousins probably still hopes to start in the NFL. When Atlanta benched him late in 2024, he — and everyone else — just kind of assumed that the Falcons would trade or release him during the 2025 offseason, an outcome that never came to fruition.
BloggingDirty‘s Jeffrey Robinson wrote last week, “Cousins’ well chronicled Falcons history has been short-lived, but highly expensive. Kirko Chainz’ dead cap hit was almost double the hit on-roster cap hit in 2025. Next season, the veteran would be a $57 million cap hit in 2026 if the Falcons kept him on the roster, and $35 million dead cap hit if he’s cut.”
“Atlanta must eat a ton of money if Cousins is cut, but it was impossible to justify until this offseason. General manager Terry Fontenot is facing a dilemma: Should he eat $35 million to move on from Cousins, or allow $57 million against the cap, and use him as the starter, or even a backup? Trading him has been on the table for a year now, but a suitor would have likely revealed themselves by now.”
No team has traded for Cousins because his contract is just so ginormous, which always been Cousins’ modus operandi.
“With those cards in hand, Fontenot has another option to consider: fans do want something different. Ever since Matt Ryan was traded away on that dreary March 21st day over three years ago, the Falcons have been aggressively searching for his replacement, with no luck,” Robinson continued.
“Four different quarterbacks have tried and failed to succeed at the position, and four seasons later, no one has yet succeeded.”
The Falcons signed Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract before shockingly drafting Penix Jr., and the front office evidently wanted some return on investment.
This upcoming offseason, however, Atlanta can more easily release Cousins sans financial hardship. If it releases him after June 1, 2026, the dead cap penalty is $22.5 million. Before June 1st would make that number an even $35 million in dead cap.
As for his possible final game in Atlanta, he might be tasked with a nifty spoiler assignment.
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