Falcons, Kirk Cousins Agree to Restructured Contract After 2025 Season

The Falcons will have a decision to make on Kirk Cousins’s future after reworking his deal.

Kirk Cousins has agreed to modify his contract with the Falcons. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The Falcons and quarterback Kirk Cousins have agreed to restructure the final two years of his current contract, per Field Yates of ESPN.

The news comes after the Falcons decided to fire former head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot, who signed him to a four-year, $180 million contract a month before taking quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 in the 2024 NFL draft.

As part of Cousins’s reworked deal, Yates reports that there is now a vesting guarantee in the $67.9 million owned to Cousins for the 2027 season. This will vest on March 13, meaning a decision on Cousins’s future and whether he will be traded could come before that date. Along with the vesting guarantee, his new deal reduces his base salary in 2026 from a non-guaranteed $35 million to $2.1 million but will not affect any guaranteed money he is already owed.

According to Yates, the Falcons could also look to move on from Cousins before March 13 by designating him for a post June 1 release, which would then divide the dead money from his contract over 2026 and 2027 and create more cap flexibility for Atlanta.

The 37-year-old veteran will enter his 15th NFL season in 2026. Cousins said after the Falcons’ win over the Saints on Sunday that it’s “hard to know” if that was his last game with Atlanta. “I would love to be back here,” Cousins said. “We’ll see how things play out. At this point, just see how it goes.”

Cousins started seven games for the Falcons in 2025 after Penix suffered a torn ACL. He went 5-2 as a starter and threw for 1,721 yards, 10 touchdowns and five picks over 10 total appearances during the season.

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