'Everything's On the Table' For A Kirk Cousins Return in 2026

FLOWERY BRANCH – Kirk Cousins put the Atlanta Falcons on notice with his outstanding performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night. The veteran completed 30-of-44 passes for 373 yards and three touchdowns in the 29-28 win.

Cousins made several big-time throws, effectively willing his team to a victory, with 217 of his yards coming in the second half. With the veteran elevating his play after being forced into playing time over the season’s second half, the potential for him to remain in Atlanta for one more season could be in the conversation.

The Falcons Podcast: Spotify | Apple Pods | WATCH

“Everything’s on the table,” Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said about the chances that Cousins could be the team’s Week 1 starter in 2026.

“We will sit down at the end of the season and have those discussions and talk about those things, and that will certainly be a part of it,” Morris continued. “We planned on the amount of years we put in his contract, and hopefully were able to potentially get more. We will see where that goes, but that is definitely up for discussion.”

The Falcons are set to get Michael Penix Jr. back at some point next summer, and hopefully ahead of the 2026 season. A general timeline would put his comeback at some point near the end of training camp, leaving the early portions of the season in question.

Should Penix not be ready for Week 1, the Falcons will be tasked with finding a palatable option for them to take meaningful snaps. If the team continues to win some games down the stretch, pushing ownership to run things back with this staff, Cousins may end up being the best (albeit expensive) option for them.

Depending on how he plays down the stretch of the season, he may offer the security they were hoping for.

Since stepping in at quarterback, he is 2-2 and averaging 242 yards per game. While those are not the numbers that people build statues for, it is a 25-yard improvement on their season average, and it is worth noting that Cousins has done that with a half-baked receiving corps.

The Falcons’ clear-cut top receiver, Drake London, has not appeared in any of Cousins’ five starts – but that could change on Sunday.

Cousins is still under contract with the Falcons through the 2026 and 2027 seasons, and he is currently in line to carry a $57.5 million cap number during each year. The number is big enough that the Falcons will be forced to at least consider moving on from him this March before his $10 million roster bonus hits on the fifth league day of the new season.

The team built in an ‘out’ on this deal for this upcoming offseason, effectively making this an expiring deal.

His experience ‘on the bubble’ goes all the way back to high school, when Cousins went into his senior season at Holland Christian without a college scholarship offer in hand. That uncertainty was not resolved until his final season ended and Michigan State came to watch him play basketball that winter.

It may have well been the foreshadowing for what his professional career would turn into. When he was in Washington, he became the first quarterback in NFL history to play under consecutive franchise tags. He flipped the uncertainty of the tag to his advantage, parlaying a lucrative, fully guaranteed contract with Minnesota in 2018.

He did that again in 2020 and 2022 when he signed a pair of short-term deals.

“I've played a lot of years on expiring contracts, probably more than most quarterbacks in the league who have played a lot,” Cousins joked Wednesday. “I've kind of lived it, and you understand that you just focus on here and now, being the present, and you don't know what's going to happen.”

Some of those worked out in his favor, while some did not, but he has been here before.

The veteran’s dead cap hit is $35 million if he is released pre-June 1st ($22.5 million in savings), compared to a spread-out dead cap hit of $22.5 million in 2026 and $12.5 million in 2027 if he is released post-June 1st ($35 million in savings).

What happens next for the Atlanta Falcons? Don't miss out on any news and analysis! Take a second, sign up for our free newsletter, and get breaking Falcons news delivered to your inbox daily!

After being benched this time last season, Cousins appeared to be an obvious candidate for the open market, but Morris appears to be leaving the door open to his return. In fact, the head coach said Wednesday that he never lost faith in the veteran.

“Quite honestly, I never thought he wasn’t a valuable starting quarterback,” Morris said. “He just didn’t play like that at the end of last year when we needed him to most.”

Despite Morris’ confidence, the Falcons did ultimately turn to Penix after Cousins’ struggles late last season. He threw a league-leading 16 interceptions over just 14 games, including nine in his last five.

The 2025 season, while it has not gone quite the way anyone hoped or expected, has served as a second chance for the quarterback.

“I think anytime you get the chance to play, it's an opportunity, and I think you feel like you need to play at a level that justifies being out there,” Cousins said, while declining to say he had something to prove over the Falcons’ final stretch of games. “This is an opportunity, and I have a responsibility with that opportunity to do the best I can with my effort.”

Cousins told the media this time last year that he “didn’t forget how to play quarterback,” and Morris said he “got his confidence back” after Thursday’s performance.

The ‘what have you done for me lately’ league was served that reminder last week. What that means for 2026 remains unknown, but the final three weeks may provide a glimpse into what that future could look like.