Kirk Cousins Should Wait for an NFL Injury
Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is in a pickle.
He rather vividly doesn’t want to play second fiddle to Michael Penix Jr. all year in Atlanta, still believing he has the juice to succeed at age 37 as a starter.
Kirk Cousins may not have any say in the matter. He must chill. With no real quarterback jobs vacant, the 37-year-old could become the NFL’s midseason savior — if an injury arises.
By this time on the NFL calendar, no team really needs a quarterback, meaning Cousins is “stuck” as a QB2, whether he likes it or not.
There’s another path, however: Cousins should wait until a QB1 injury rocks the sport, paving the way for himself as the savior.
Kirk Cousins Should Embrace the Mercenary Role
Cousins didn’t show up at Falcons organized team activities (OTAs), leading many to wonder if he was disgruntled. A couple of weeks later, Cousins arrived at mandatory minicamp and stayed rather mum about the idea of a trade — the only way he can start this season, sans a Penix Jr. injury.
Well, Cousins should wait for an injury, just not to his own quarterback.
A prominent starting quarterback will likely succumb to a season-ending injury — the nature of the beast, unfortunately — and then Cousins would instantly become the hottest name in the NFL. The narrative would bend like this: “Team X should call Cousins to save the season,” a conversation that will be amplified if the unnamed team has a winning record.
The Falcons could even price-gouge at that point. Viking fans with a bit of a memory may even recall the Sam Bradford trade, one that occurred after QB1 Teddy Bridgewater was lost for the season due to injury. Does there come a point in 2025 when Cousins mirrors Bradford’s journey?
QB1s Get Hurt, Sadly
Last season, these notable quarterbacks ended up missing all or the end of the 2024 regular season:
- Derek Carr (Saints)
- J.J. McCarthy (Vikings)
- Aidan O’Connell (Raiders)
- Dak Prescott (Cowboys)
- Anthony Richardson (Colts)
- Trevor Lawrence (Jaguars)
- Deshaun Watson (Browns)
Quarterbacks fall injured in the NFL annually. Without fail. Cousins, somewhat morbidly, just needs one domino to hit.
Most of those clubs, outside of the Vikings, watched as their campaign splattered into nothingness. Ryan Tannehill was the best spot-starting quarterback option along the way, but no team took the plunge.
This go-round, however, a playoff-contending team would very much pursue the Cousins Sweepstakes when the time comes.
No Other Trade Partners Right Now Besides the Saints
Cousins’ trade market has dried to a desert scale. The Pittsburgh Steelers finally signed Aaron Rodgers. The New York Giants have three quarterbacks when they had zero in mid-March. The Cleveland Browns have a crowded house at QB.
That leaves the Saints, a franchise that drafted 26-year-old rookie signal-caller Tyler Shough. At age 26, Shough should be ready now — if not now, when for a 26-year-old rookie — and the Saints are a natural rival of the Falcons.
Much like the Vikings trading a productive passer to the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, or Detroit Lions to “help them out,” would the Saints and Falcons really do trade business for Cousins? Probably not.
The Big Savior
Assume it’s a team like the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, or San Francisco 49ers that encounters a QB1 injury. Those organizations will very much maintain Super Bowl or bust stakes, as their rosters will remain formidable. A Kirk Cousins trade would make sense.
Atlanta could trade Cousins to San Francisco, for example, and if Cousins played in his 2023 form, well, he’d be labeled as the big savior.
That’s a hell of a lot better than being traded laterally to the Vikings, for instance, where Cousins would sit behind a different young quarterback, J.J. McCarthy.
NFL.com on Cousins
Jeffri Chadiha of NFL.com unpacked Cousins’ plight late last week: “Does Kirk Cousins end up being a backup in Atlanta this season? Unless we’re missing something here, this is the only option for Cousins at this stage. There could’ve been some smoke around Pittsburgh if Rodgers had decided to retire, but that didn’t happen.”
“Every other team that needed a veteran quarterback earlier this offseason found one, leaving Cousins with no other choice than to make it work in Atlanta a little while longer. He did show up for the team’s mandatory minicamp, which is a good start if you’re going to be stuck in a place you don’t want to be for the foreseeable future.”
Cousins hasn’t entered a season as the QB2 since 2014.
Chadiha concluded, “There’s also the real possibility of Cousins being traded later in the year if another team suffers through injury problems at quarterback. He reportedly has said that he wants to be dealt to a team where a starting job is available. In that case, it’s time for him to wait patiently for a vacancy to appear. Cousins made $100 million in guaranteed money when he signed with Atlanta last season.”
“The best he can do for now — and he said as much this week — is be a reliable backup to Michael Penix Jr.”
Simply put, Cousins should bide his time.
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