With minicamp on the horizon and training camp less than a month away, Kirk Cousins is... still on the Atlanta Falcons. The NFL's most overpaid and overqualified backup is stuck in Atlanta, getting paid tens of millions of dollars to watch begrudgingly as Michael Penix Jr. takes first-team reps.
The Falcons have sent mixed messages about Cousins' future all offseason. We've heard they are totally fine keeping him as a backup, which appears true to some extent. We've also heard the Falcons want him out the door as soon as possible.
No matter how you slice it, the 36-year-old is still on the Falcons roster and there's no reported traction on a trade. With Aaron Rodgers officially in Pittsburgh and the Browns committed to either Joe Flacco or Kenny Pickett, the list of logical landing spots has shrunk.
His final destination might end up being Atlanta by process of elimination, but if the Falcons do end up moving the former Pro Bowl quarterback eventually, these teams make the most sense.
3. New Orleans Saints
The Falcons are surely resistant to the idea of trading Kirk Cousins within the division — not to mention the New Orleans Saints, of all teams. But value is value, and there isn't a more quarterback-needy team in the NFL right now.
With Derek Carr hitting retirement, the Saints are currently shuffling between 2025 second-round pick Tyler Shough, 2024 fifth-round pick Spencer Rattler and 2023 fourth-round pick Jake Haener. Not a lot of clear winners there.
New Orleans clearly believes in Shough enough to make him the third quarterback off the board this past April, but Shough's college career was... a mixed bag. He's 25 and should, in theory, be more ready than your average rookie due to his wealth of experience. But the tape is lacking, and it felt like a reach in the moment. Just because he's suddenly in the driver's seat does not mean he is actually good enough to lead an NFL offense.
Maybe the Saints are content to tank for Arch Manning in a year. But if the goal is to feign competitiveness in a weak division, the Saints ought to place a phone call for Cousins, who if nothing else, brings a bit of veteran know-how to the NFL's least experienced QB room.
2. New York Giants
The New York Giants just signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, so this trade won't happen before the season. But what happens if New York starts slow? The Giants' schedule is relentless and we know Wilson is not what he once was. The Giants have a lot of quarterbacks on the roster, but none you can really feel good about in a winning context. Jaxson Dart probably isn't ready to start NFL games in 2025.
If the Giants are 0-3 and Wilson is floundering, it's not impossible to imagine a swap of backup quarterbacks — something like Winston and a Day 3 pick to bring Cousins to NYC, where he can add a new dimension to Brian Daboll's offense. Cousins isn't exactly the dual-threat quarterback of Daboll's dreams, but he can slice and dice defenses in play action and there's reason to believe last season's turnover problem was circumstantial to a nagging injury, rather than indicative of his current abilities.
This feels improbable, but again, we are stretching to even find teams that make sense. New Orleans is the only team in the NFL without a clear QB1 entering training camp, aside from maybe Indianapolis, where Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson both have starting DNA, and Cleveland, where Flacco and Pickett are both viewed favorably.
The Giants are clearly not sold on Wilson as a long-term option, thus the trade-up for Dart on draft night. Both Wilson and Winston are on one-year deals. If it's not working and the team feels pressure to win — and you can bet both Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen feel pressure to win — there's a world in which kicking the tires on Cousins is considered a better option than tossing 22-year-old Jaxson Dart into the wolves' den.
1. Minnesota Vikings
This concept has picked up steam again after Rodgers' move to Pittsburgh. The Minnesota Vikings continue to express the utmost faith in J.J. McCarthy, but he's effectively a rookie coming off of a major ankle injury, so we can't say with certainty what to expect. We also can't act like Cousins will have a guaranteed starting gig lined up anywhere, even if he's traded.
If this just ends up with Cousins riding shotgun behind a young quarterback, perhaps he'd feel better doing it in Minnesota. The Vikings didn't ink him to a $180 million contract and then immediately throw him under the bus and bury him on the bench. Cousins' best years came in the Kevin O'Connell system. Minnesota can confidently hand the reins to Cousins if McCarthy gets hurt, or if he doesn't perform out of the gate.
Cousins is probably a bit too expensive for the Vikings' liking — I mean, there's a reason he signed that contract in Atlanta — but with Sam Darnold no longer on the roster, Minnesota's QB room is looking a little thin. McCarthy is unproven to the extreme. The Vikings' scheme is borderline foolproof, but McCarthy is one of the least experienced quarterbacks in the NFL. His résumé was by far the slightest of the 2024 rookie quarterbacks, even after he led Michigan to the national title.
The idea of Cousins and Minnesota reuniting has felt so far fetched for so long, but with how the current NFL landscape sits, it may represent his most realistic path to a fresh start. Sometimes all it takes to get your career back on track is a return to your roots.