The Atlanta Falcons have been trying to move their $180 million dollar man all off season. Good news seems to finally be on the horizon as Jeremy Fowler reported on ESPN’s SportsCenter that Kirk Cousins is very much on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ radar.
“I had some conversations with people this week that led me to believe that Cousins is at the very least on the Steelers’ radar, if something were fall through on Rodgers,” Fowler began. “There was interest earlier in the offseason. Right now, Pittsburgh might be the only hope for Cousins or he’s stuck in Atlanta.”
The massive hurdle that this deal- as a majority of NFL trades do- hinges on is the guaranteed money the Falcons included in the deal that Cousins signed just two years ago. The massive deal awarded to the new 36-year-old veteran has turned out to be a massive flop for the organization who is now doing everything in their power to get somebody else to foot the bill.
“Cousins has $37.5 million in guarantees between this year and next year,” Fowler continued. “Somebody’s on the hook for that, whether it’s Atlanta or someone else. So to facilitate a trade, Atlanta would need a team to offset some of that money, whether it’s $4 million, $20 million, whatever it is, but the feeling around the league is that Atlanta has not been willing to budge on this… As one source told me, if they were willing to take a small percentage, like let’s say $7 or $8 million of that money, a deal would be done by now.”
Steelers’ Owner Losing Patience With Rodgers
In typical Aaron Rodgers fashion, he is the true last remaining domino to fall in the 2025 NFL offseason. He has publicly flirted with the idea of retirement but seems to maintain that he would like to return to the league after all. The front runner, and one of the last remaining teams without a true starting quarterback, is the Pittsburgh Steelers. But it appears their owner might be running out of patience for the future Hall of Famer.
“#Steelers president Art Rooney II — who said April 1 that the Steelers will wait “not forever, but a little while longer” for Aaron Rodgers — delivered a similar line on his way out of Wednesday’s owners meetings. “A little while longer. I’ll say the same thing,” he said,” an X post from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler read Thursday evening.
Save The Date: June 1st
June 1st could be the day Atlanta’s veteran finally gets moved. This is for two reasons. Firstly, June is when teams offseason programs are going to really start picking up, and the Steelers are in danger of going into that date with Mason Rudolph under center.
Secondly, June 1st is the major cap designation date in the NFL. It provides a concrete date in which teams are able to transfer their financial responsibilities to other teams. For example, per Over the Cap, if Cousins was traded before June 1st, whatever team acquired him would have been on the hook for his full 37.5 million dollar contract. But waiting for this important date meant that the Falcons’ would absolve $12.5 million of that, lessening the financial burden of potential trade partners.
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