Mike Florio sounds off on Falcons treatment of Kirk Cousins…again

Nobody has had more to say about the Atlanta Falcons and their treatment of former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins than Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. He has ranked the Falcons surprisingly low in his pre-training camp rankings , citing the Falcons’ team-building process as the culprit. He went on a rant after the Falcons were hit with a slap on the wrist for their tampering charges. Now, Florio sounds off on the Falcons and their treatment of Cousins…again. This time referencing how easily the Falcons could get out of the Cousins contract after 2025.

I’ve put the Kirk Cousins over-under with the Falcons at two years. He could be traded after only one year, with a cap charge for the Falcons of $37.5 million for 2024 and an overall investment of $62.5 million in cash for one. A new team would get him at a base salary of only $27.5 million for 2025.

Yes, Cousins has a no-trade clause. But if the choices are to stay and not play or approve a trade and get on the field, what will he do?

After every season, teams make big decisions about their most important positions. There will be teams looking for short-term answers at quarterback. And, at $27.5 million for 2025 and $35 million for 2026, Cousins would be a short-term bargain.

Cousins for under $40 million would be a short-term bargain, that is, unless he is more hurt than we expect. Why else would the Falcons draft one of the more pro-ready quarterbacks to sit behind a 36-year-old quarterback coming off an Achilles injury?

Florio also made sure to remind those who would listen that this was the Vikings' plan for a smooth transition in their competitive rebuild as general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah labeled it.

When quarterback Kirk Cousins was asked whether he would have signed with the Falcons if he’d known they’d be using the eighth overall pick on a quarterback, Cousins said, “ I don’t really deal in hypotheticals .”

That was a soft way of saying, “Hell no.”

A recent item from Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com that chronicles the Vikings’ two-year journey from Cousins to J.J. McCarthy shows that the Vikings wanted to do with Cousins exactly what the Falcons did.

Here’s the key passage: "[Coach Kevin] O’Connell leveled with Cousins after the season: The Vikings’ 3-6 record after his injury had exposed the dangers of not looking beyond a 36-year-old quarterback. With their best draft position (No. 11 overall) in a decade, the team had decided to tap into a deep 2024 quarterback class and find its next starter. But no one -- not ownership, not [G.M. Kwesi] Adofo-Mensah and not O’Connell -- wanted the rookie to play right away. Cousins would be their starter in 2024 and possibly longer.”

Even if the Vikings had offered Cousins the same contract the Falcons did ($90 million fully guaranteed at signing, with another $10 million that vests next year), Cousins likely would have opted for the place where retirement would have been a strong option. That’s what he, and everyone else, thought he was getting when he went to Atlanta.

The Falcons fell in love with a quarterback in the draft and didn’t see a better avenue to transition into the future than drafting quarterback Michael Penix, Jr . Could they have let Cousins know beforehand? Absolutely. Were they required to? Absolutely not. Will it affect anything in the locker room? As long as Cousins plays like we know he can, it won’t.

So, with training camp ready to roll in and the 2024 season creeping up, let’s talk about what’s happening on the field. There’s a lot to be excited about this season. I think it’s time we stop focusing on the negatives.

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