The Atlanta Falcons found their new franchise quarterback in the form of Kirk Cousins within the first few hours of free agency last week. The 35-year-old traded the wintery conditions of Minneapolis for the peaches and heat in Atlanta, as a fresh era at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is well and truly underway and with new head coach Raheem Morris and his new signal caller.
The Falcons made the first real splash signing of free agency, but did the Dirty Birds overpay for a quarterback who has just one career playoff win?
For starters, professional sports contracts, for the most part, have gotten out of hand. There’s no denying that. Even as someone who tends to prefer to watch professional sports over college action, there’s astronomical sums of money in the pro realm in today’s world.
The going rate for a top-tier quarterback five-to-10 years ago was probably in the $20-30 million range, but that has now nearly doubled with more NFL fans and bigger broadcast and media rights deals that have allowed the league to increase the salary cap for each team. This, in turn, has seen quarterback’s agents have the power to negotiate for more money when looking for a new deal or searching for a new team as a free agent.
Cousins has excelled in this regard, earning the title of “generational bag getter.” According to spotrac.com, Cousins has raked in just north of $294 million in career earnings in his 12 NFL seasons with the Washington Commanders (then Redskins) and Minnesota Vikings.
The ironic part of this is that Cousins has often been seen as the quarterback who excels in the regular season but has just never got over the hump in crunch time. His 1-4 playoff record – his lone win in the postseason that came against the Saints back in 2020 – is the kind of record you’d expect someone who threw to Stefon Diggs and Justin Jefferson and also has near $300 million in career earnings.
Cousins, who suffered a season-ending Achilles injury after throwing for 2,331 yards, 18 touchdowns to five interceptions with a completion percentage of 69.5%, inked a lucrative four-year deal with the Falcons that included $100 million guaranteed. Cousins is set to play for his third NFL team with Atlanta in a contract worth $180 million in total with nearly all of the guaranteed money coming in his first two seasons as a Falcon, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
This makes sense in the scenario that Cousins’ time in Atlanta hasn’t gone all too well after the 2025 season, with the Falcons essentially being able to part ways with the veteran quarterback before the 2026 season without a huge chunk of dead money over their heads.
Cousins’ new deal sees him sit in seventh place in the league’s highest-paid quarterbacks, as he’s set to make the same amount of money in 2024 – $45 million – as three-time Super Bowl champion and two-time league MVP Patrick Mahomes, according to overthecap.com.
This is definitely an interesting statistic that really puts it into perspective how a quarterback who has been terrific only in the regular season will earn the same as a player who’s the best at his position and is a lock for the Hall of Fame once he hangs up his cleats.
On one hand, the Falcons are trying to undo those two strange years of quarterback play where Desmond Ridder, Taylor Heinicke and Marcos Mariota all tried but failed to hold down the position after Matt Ryan’s exit to the Colts. To try to fix this problem, they shelled out the big bucks to land one of the top free agents – who was shining last season until his injury and they realized that they must pay top-tier money to land a top-tier player for the next few seasons.
On the other hand, general manager Terry Fontenot and Co. have committed a significant number of resources toward an aging player who could very well be on the decline in Atlanta that has failed to deliver when it matters most. The Falcons have no shortage of offensive weapons with Kyle Pitts, Drake London and Bijan Robinson, but with Cousins taking up roughly 17% of the Falcons’ cap space in 2024 with Pitts and cornerback A.J. Terrell expecting a payday soon. The Falcons also still need to address their pass-rushing woes with limited resources, an evergreen statement as a lifelong fan of the team.
The verdict: I think the Falcons did overpay for Cousins. With the rumors circulating leading up to free agency, I was expecting something in the $30 million range, and to commit the same amount of money that a Super Bowl-winning player is already getting is a huge risk, especially after an Achilles injury and his not-so-great postseason showings.
I think that the deal will be worth it for the Falcons if Cousins can, at a minimum, lead the Dirty Birds to two playoff appearances in 2024 and 2025 with top-of-the-line quarterback play. It’s a bit much for a player to simply lead a team into the postseason and nothing more as the Falcons will have their sights set on much more, but Cousins could ultimately turn out to be a very, very expensive transition quarterback once his contract nears its conclusion.
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