Kirk Cousins has struck again.
No, news that the biggest prize in free agency landed with a four-year deal with the Atlanta Falcons worth $180 million, per multiple reports, as the “legal tampering” period opened on Monday was hardly a stunner.
Cousins, after all, is a quarterback. When the deal becomes official with the opening of the NFL’s free agency market on Wednesday, Cousins will join a quarterback-needy team – remember how new Falcons coach Raheem Morris put it from the podium at the combine, “If we had better quarterback play last year in Atlanta, I might not be standing here” – that undoubtedly projects him as the missing piece toward becoming a legitimate contender.
In the NFL, such a potential equation pays big bucks.
Just ask Cousins.
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Nobody, as in not a single soul, not even Russell Wilson, has worked the NFL system better over the past decade than Cousins.
Hey, Cousins, 35, who entered the NFL in 2012 as a fourth-round pick, may have a Michigan State education. But with the juice of agent Mike McCartney, he’s executed with the equivalent of having an MBA from Wharton in playing the NFL market over the years.
The new contract, according to ESPN, averages $45 million per year and guarantees $100 million. Now get this: It’s the first time since Cousins’ rookie contract that every single penny wasn’t guaranteed. He was twice franchise-tagged by Washington (2 years, nearly $44 million), then jumped to the Minnesota Vikings in 2018 with a three-year, fully guaranteed $84 million contract. Then he re-upped for $66 million (2 years) and extended for $35 million (1 year).
Now this. If he plays out the new deal, Cousins will have earned more than $400 million since his original rookie contract averaged $643,000 for his first four years. Talk about getting to that second contract. And the third one. And so on.
Insert Cousins reaction here: You like that!
Surely, there’s no need for any shame here. If someone (as in the typical NFL owner) can afford to back up the Brink’s truck and pay Cousins and other marquee players the stunning figures that represent the going rate, then imagine how much they’re hauling in. With the salary cap expanding to a record $255.4 million in 2024, NFL revenues surely top $20 billion – seemingly on course to reach the goal that Roger Goodell established in 2010 of hitting $25 billion by 2027.
Still, it’s fair to wonder if the big money will pay off with the biggest victories.
For all of the cash that Cousins has commanded, he has won just one playoff game.
Granted, quarterbacks get too much of the credit and too much of the blame. Yet they are also the most important players on any team, the ones who essentially touch the football on every snap, can raise the level of the supporting cast, and whose ability and decisions under pressure make or break hearts.
Cousins, the starter for nine of his 12 NFL seasons, has a 1-4 playoff record that hardly suggests that the Falcons are guaranteed playoff glory.
Then again, the Falcons, loaded with talent that includes running back Bijan Robinson, receiver Drake London and tight end Kyle Pitts, have to shoot their best shot while realizing that past playoff performances and circumstances with Cousins don’t necessarily reflect the future. And if you’re Arthur Blank, with one Super Bowl heartbreak and zero titles since buying the Falcons in 2002, your patience is certainly tested.
The experiment in developing third-round pick Desmond Ridder backfired and cost coach Arthur Smith his job. Ridder was a turnover machine at the worst times last season. He’s young. Maybe he will ultimately develop into a formidable pro quarterback.
Yet Cousins, one of the NFL’s best regular-season quarterbacks over recent years, is about winning now. The Falcons might have maneuvered to land one of the top-tiered talents from a deep rookie quarterback class. But that would have been a risk. They might have also swung a deal with the Chicago Bears and traded for local product Justin Fields.
Instead, after passing on pursuit of Deshaun Watson in 2022 and last year scratching any idea to test the waters for the (unlikely) possibility of getting Lamar Jackson, the Falcons have secured their best quarterback since Matt Ryan.
Now what? Cousins is apparently on track for a full recovery from the torn Achilles tendon that he suffered during the middle of last season, which abruptly ended his hot campaign. In addition to playmakers such as Robinson, Pitts and London – the team’s last three first-round picks – the Falcons will support Cousins with a talented O-line that includes three more first-round picks. The defense, meanwhile, took a huge jump last season and is poised to get even better under Morris, who did some impressive work as the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator. And that unit might get a jolt, too, by drafting an impact player with the eighth pick in the first round in April.
Cousins, however, is the one coming to town with the huge expectations of providing major bang for the buck. As it should be.
That’s a fact of life for quarterbacks in the NFL universe. And it’s why the real value for the Falcons in landing Cousins can’t be measured until the playoffs.