Falcons Officially Demote Four-Time Pro Bowl QB; Time For Jets To Pounce?

The New York Jets’ path to acquire one of their top quarterback targets just got easier.

It’s no secret that the Darren Mougey/Aaron Glenn brain trust in New York is eyeing Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins (via trade) as an Aaron Rodgers replacement.

It now appears that Cousins would be more than happy to oblige Mougey and Glenn and join the Jets, as he will officially not be the starter in Atlanta in 2025 should he return, according to a new report from The Athletic’s Josh Kendall.

“Atlanta Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot and coach Raheem Morris sidestepped questions about Kirk Cousins’ health on Tuesday, but they made one thing clear — Cousins won’t be competing for the starting job if he does return to the Falcons for the upcoming season,” Kendall wrote.

Kendall reported that, “When asked about Cousins’ chances of retaking the starting job, (Morris said), “Michael Penix is our quarterback, and Michael Penix will continue to be our quarterback.”

Kendall also wrote about Atlanta’s available options regarding Cousins moving forward.

“The Falcons could get salary-cap relief by trading Cousins or could simply cut him before March 17, when he is scheduled to receive a $10 million roster bonus and give both parties a clean break, Kendall reported. “If that is the plan, Atlanta’s executives weren’t offering any clues Tuesday.”

The fact that Fontenot and Morris were playing coy with the media regarding Cousins shows that they didn’t want to say anything that might diminish Cousins’s value on the market.

In other words, Cousins is 100 percent available for the right price, and if the Jets are high on Cousins, they’ll be in solid position to acquire the 36-year-old four-time Pro Bowler this spring.

The general feeling about New York’s QB1 situation is that the Jets would like to bring in either Justin Fields or Cousins (in that order of preference), but if neither acquisition works out, Gang Green will roll with Tyrod Taylor in 2025 while developing a young QB that they’ve selected in the 2025 draft.

That leads to another possibility that the Jets will trade up from No. 7 overall to try and snag either Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders if they fail to sign Fields, or even if they pull off a trade for the older Cousins.

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