As each week passes by, any hope that former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has about the Atlanta Falcons trading him elsewhere this season slowly fades away.
Following Joe Burrow's significant injury a few weeks ago, some viewed the Cincinnati Bengals as a potential landing spot for Cousins this year. But that is no longer the case after the move the Bengals just made.
On Tuesday, Cincinnati decided to make a trade for a veteran quarterback, and instead of Cousins, they opted to make a move to acquire Joe Flacco in a deal with the Cleveland Browns.
Former Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins likely stuck with the Atlanta Falcons for the rest of the 2025 season
Luckily for the former Minnesota quarterback, he'll still be making a nice chunk of change this year while he continues to be the No. 2 signal-caller in Atlanta behind Michael Penix.
Even if Cousins doesn't throw a single touchdown in a Falcons uniform this season, $27.5 million will enter his bank account. And that's actually a big reason why the chances are very high that he is going to remain in Atlanta for the remainder of the 2025 campaign.
Flacco is going to take up less than $2 million of the Bengals' salary cap for the rest of the season, so the risk of making a deal for him is far less than it would be if they had traded for Cousins. To be precise, Flacco's 2025 cap hit is $25.6 million less than the salary cap space that the former Vikings quarterback is currently taking up with the Falcons.
Of course, Atlanta could also agree to take on some of Cousins' cap hit this year if they are presented with an enticing enough offer to trade the quarterback before this season's deadline.
But, after what Cincinnati did on Tuesday, it seems like teams would rather add players who don't come with as much of a monetary risk as the one that the former Minnesota quarterback currently has.