Falcons GM Terry Fontenot says he’s perfectly comfortable with Kirk Cousins being a $100-million backup QB in ‘25

The Falcons have some paths they could take here. It's easy to say no one would trade for Cousins or the Falcons won't keep him, but don't be too sure. His contract is not that big an albatross moving forward.

• The Falcons could cut Cousins now, but there would be no cap savings (but also no dead money). So speaking just financially, keeping Cousins vs cutting him makes no difference in the cap. (However, obviously from a cash flow standpoint it's money he must be paid, and that does matter to owners without question if the benefit is debatable).
• A post-6/1 cut is an option, leaving them with $25M on the books next year.
• They could also hang onto him and see if a team suffers an injury and would give some middling pick for him. The cap ramifications are actually better in 2025 for the Falcons if they do that -- but of course you have to hold on to Cousins for that timeline, so the cap isn't the priority there. A mid-season trade for Cousins or before isn't that crazy, because the guarantees in his contract will be gone after 2025.
• They could truly keep him if ownership doesn't balk at the cash flow. They can cut Cousins outright next year with a cap savings.

Lot's of options. I don't think Fontenot is lying when he says they could keep him, but he's also trying to leverage the situation they've found themselves in. Frankly I think he's most likely speaking to Kirk and his agent here as much as anything. "We'll keep you around, no problem. Of course you could work with us on your contract and we might could get you to another team, etc."

I do still think at the end of the day the most logical move is that he is cut though. Simply because no owner wants to pay $27.5M to someone who is likely/hopefully of "no use" to the team.