It looks like Kirk Cousins’ run has come to an end after the Atlanta Falcons benched the veteran in favor of their first round pick.
Kirk Cousins and rumors of reuniting Kyle Shanahan have been synonymous since Cousins said his preferred destination was the San Francisco 49ers in 2017.
It’s been an annual tradition in Niners land, as quarterbacks have been a revolving door until Brock Purdy took over. The tradition started before Jimmy Garoppolo signed his contract extension and reached its peak ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft.
So long as there’s the slightest question about who should be under center, Cousins will continue to be tied to Shanahan and the 49ers. But this should be an offseason full of contract debates, and not who should be the quarterback.
The population for Cousins-truthers is non-existent after his Monday night performance. He’d been struggling to throw the ball outside of the numbers during the past month. After throwing for 112 yards and missing seemingly every meaningful throw, the Atlanta Falcons announced they pulled the plug on Cousins and will roll with first-round rookie Michael Penix.
Cousins turns 37 next training camp. Atlanta’s only option is to trade him with a post-June-1 designation to avoid swimming in nearly $75 million worth of dead money through 2027.
It’s a quarterback-needy league, and some teams will point to the box score from two weeks ago and see that Cousins threw for 344 yards, so, surely, he still has something left. But the eye test begs to differ and sees a quarterback with little confidence and even less mobility. Those two traits are paired with the arm of an aging veteran, and the results have been predictable.
Some team will try to use Cousins as a stopgap in 2025. That team shouldn’t reside in the Bay Area. A team that isn’t going anywhere like the Las Vegas Raiders makes sense, but Cousins would be a downgrade and bring more questions than answers from what the 49ers currently have under center.