The Atlanta Falcons have informed quarterback Kirk Cousins that the franchise plans to release him on the first day of the new league year.
New general manager Ian Cunningham told 92.9 The Game hosts that he has spoken with the QB and that the club plans to turn over a new leaf as of March 11th. The move will give the Falcons future financial flexibility, as the team had restructured his contract to be guaranteed $67.9M as of March 13th.
“I did talk to Kirk and his representation, Mike McCartney, letting them know that we will release him on the first day of the league year,” Cunningham said. “We just felt that that was out of respect for Kirk and Mike, his agent, and what’s he’s done in his career, just that we owe that to him to allow him some clarity going into free agency.”
By releasing him with a post June 1st designation, the team will also save $2.1M in cap space this season. His departure will however create a $22.5M dead cap hit in 2026 and a $12.5M dead cap hit in 2027.
The move puts an end to the tumultuous time in Atlanta for the veteran quarterback. Originally signed to a 4 year, $180M contract as a free agent in 2024, the Falcons made the bizarre choice to then immediately draft a quarterback in the 1st round only a few weeks later.
By selecting Michael Penix Jr. 8th overall rather than addressing other areas of need, the team created unnecessary friction at position many assumed they had shored up in free agency.
The team will now move forward with Penix Jr. as their franchise signal caller despite a lacklustre 4-8 record as a professional. The 25 year old is also coming off yet another ACL tear, marking the 3rd knee reconstruction surgery of his young career.
Current reports indicate that there’s optimism in Atlanta that Penix Jr. will be ready to go for Week 1 of the NFL season. However, beyond him, the Falcons quarterback room is fairly barren. Backup Easton Stick is currently a free agent, leading many to assume that Atlanta will be forced to draft another quarterback this spring.
With the team having already traded away their 2026 first rounder to the Los Angeles Rams however, that will need to be a day 2 or 3 selection.
From here it’s unclear where Cousins will wind up in free agency. It’s possible that at this point in his career the 37 year old chases a ring and signs on with a contender as a backup. But there have been persistent rumours that the Minnesota Vikings could have at least a passing interest in meeting with Cousins’ agent if the Falcons did in fact opt to move on from him.
Cousins led the Vikings to a 13-4 record in 2022, and had the team at 4-4 before suffering a season ending injury the following season. In his last full season with Minnesota he threw for 4,547 yards, 29 TDs and 14 INTs.
The Vikings rotated through several quarterbacks in 2025 including J.J. McCarthy, Max Brosmer, and Carson Wentz. Their ineffective play resulted in a 9-8 record despite having one of the more star studded offences in the league.
It also resulted in wide receiver Justin Jefferson questioning the direction of the team during the offseason after missing out on the playoffs.
Whatever the club opts to do, it’s worth noting that if the Vikings were to bring in Cousins as either a starter or backup, it wouldn’t be all that dissimilar to the dynamic he just went through with Penix Jr. in Atlanta. And that, perhaps more than anything else, could be what prevents the reunion from ultimately materializing.
Photo: Atlanta Falcons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.