REPORT: Spartan Legend Lands Rough Prediction With NFL Team
Last offseason, the Atlanta Falcons signed quarterback Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180-million deal that featured $100 million in guaranteed money.
Many immediately looked at the contract with a side eye, wondering if it was a good idea to hand such a massive pact to a 36-year-old coming off of a torn Achilles.
Then, when the Falcons selected quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall pick of the NFL Draft, people were even more confused.
Well, needless to say, Cousins' debut campaign in Atlanta did not go according to plan, as he ended up being benched during the second half of the season.
Now, it's looking like the Falcons want to move forward with Penix, which leaves them in a difficult situation with the former Michigan State star. Should they trade him? Should they just bite the bullet and cut him?
ESPN's Marc Raimondi is predicting the latter scenario and thinks that Atlanta will release Cousins and eat a substantial amount of money in the process.
"Both sides come out of this with egg on their faces, and even the small chance Cousins might return to Atlanta seems to be decreasing now," Raimondi wrote. "The Falcons releasing him next month and eating $65 million in dead money is most likely."
Recently, during an appearance on "Good Morning Football," Cousins revealed that he was injured when the Falcons benched him. That came during a stretch when the Michigan State product threw one touchdown and nine interceptions over a span of five games.
At the time, however, Cousins denied that anything was wrong with him, which makes the entire state of affairs in Atlanta pretty awkward.
The four-time Pro Bowler would have absolutely no value on the trade market with his current contract, so the Falcons will probably be left with no choice but to cut him if they do plan to move on from him.
All in all, this set of circumstances should have never happened. Not saying that Atlanta shouldn't have signed Cousins entirely, but it obviously shouldn't have given him such a huge contract, especially considering that the Falcons clearly didn't have total faith in him to begin with.
If they did, then they would not have drafted Penix.
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Matthew Schmidt is a sportswriter who covers NFL, MLB, NBA and college football and basketball. He has been writing professionally since 2011 and has also worked for Bleacher Report, FanRag Sports, ClutchPoints, NFLAnalysis.net and NBAAnalysis.net. He was born and raised in New Jersey and has a rather eclectic group of favorite teams: the Boston Celtics, New York Giants and Miami Marlins.