{"id":613848,"date":"2026-02-24T23:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/613848\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T23:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:41:13","slug":"falcons-tell-kirk-cousins-theyre-releasing-him-to-end-100m-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/613848\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons tell Kirk Cousins they’re releasing him to end $100M disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirk Cousins\u2019 tenure with the Falcons is about to end \u2014 and one of the worst contracts in NFL history is about to be off the books.<\/p>\n

The Falcons will release Cousins on the first day of the new league year, March 11, general manager Ian Cunningham said Tuesday as the NFL scouting combine kicked off in Indianapolis. He will become an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of respect for Kirk and Michael [Penix Jr.], felt like that was the right decision,\u201d Cunningham said on 92.3 The Game.<\/p>\n

After signing a four-year, $180 million contract to leave the Vikings in March 2024, Cousins earned $100 million for 22 starts (12-10 record) and 28 touchdown passes.<\/p>\n

\"KirkKirk Cousins is expected to be released by the Falcons. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Falcons will carry his $24.6 million cap figure<\/a> into June, and then the dead money will be $22.5 million in 2026 and $12.5 million in 2027, according to Spotrac. There are $10 million worth of offsets attached to the contract if he signs for that amount or more elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Only six weeks after luring Cousins away from the Vikings, then-Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot drafted Penix with the No. 8 pick before Cousins made it to his first OTAs. It angered Cousins and created an awkward ticking-clock dynamic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Penix eventually replaced Cousins for the 15th game of his rookie season, after Cousins\u2019 hot start to the 2024 season faded while dealing with an injury. Cousins opened last season as the most expensive backup quarterback in NFL history before the oft-injured Penix was sidelined by a torn ACL (third time since college).<\/p>\n

Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris were fired after last season<\/a>, and Cunningham and head coach Kevin Stefanski were welcomed. Stefanski was the Vikings quarterbacks coach or offensive coordinator for Cousins\u2019 first two seasons with the Vikings (2018-19) before he became the Browns head coach.<\/p>\n

But any relationship between Stefanski and Cousins was trumped by the impossibility of Cousins\u2019 contract. He would have been guaranteed $67.9 million in 2027 if he was on the Falcons roster March 13.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelThe Falcons drafted Michael Penix Jr. in 2024 \u2014 months after signing Cousins. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cousins, 37, immediately becomes an attractive option for a win-now team on a quarterback-barren free agent market. The Steelers, Vikings and Colts all fit the bill.<\/p>\n

Cousins nearly signed with the Jets in 2019, but a lot has changed since then. What hasn\u2019t changed is that the Jets still need a starting quarterback \u2014 unless the plan is to stick with Justin Fields \u2014 but they seem to be a long way off from contention.<\/p>\n

The irony is that the Falcons won\u2019t commit to naming Penix the starter in Year 3 as they search for a veteran who isn\u2019t Cousins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not big on giving out positions in February,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cI think you guys know how I feel about Michael, and I\u2019m excited about his trajectory. I also know he\u2019s focused on his rehab, which is the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirk Cousins\u2019 tenure with the Falcons is about to end \u2014 and one of the worst contracts in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":613849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[6328,11345,1232,25663,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-613848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-atlanta-falcons","9":"tag-kirk-cousins","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-free-agency","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116128258319387545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}