It has now been almost two months since Kirk Cousins decided to end his time with the Minnesota Vikings after six seasons with the franchise and sign a multi-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons.
After joining the Falcons, Cousins immediately began talking about his desire to retire as a member of his new team. It seemed like the veteran quarterback was assuming he was going to be Atlanta's starting signal-caller for the next handful of seasons.
However, the Falcons quickly put an end to those assumptions last month when they selected former Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall pick in this year's NFL Draft.
New details emerge about Kirk Cousins leaving the Minnesota Vikings to sign with the Atlanta Falcons
Following Cousins' decision to sign with Atlanta, multiple reports began to share that the Vikings were unwilling to give the quarterback the amount of guaranteed money that he was hoping for in a new contract.
This was believed to be the main reason for Cousins deciding to leave Minnesota. But Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer recently shared the following about why the quarterback also decided to end his tenure with the Vikings earlier this year.
"A reason decided to leave Minnesota is because the Vikings were very up front with the 35-year-old about the possibility that, even in the case he stayed, they’d take a quarterback of the future high in the draft.
Tying that together with the team’s willingness to guarantee part, but not all, of a second year on another contract, Cousins figured that, if he stayed, there was a good shot that he’d be on the move in 2025."
So, what the Falcons ended up doing by drafting Penix last month is exactly what Cousins was attempting to avoid by leaving Minnesota.
Perhaps if Cousins didn't make it so obvious during his entire NFL career that his main goal has been to make as much money as possible, more teams would have been willing to invest their time in a 35-year-old quarterback coming off of a torn Achilles injury.
Instead, Cousins' only two options this offseason turned out to be a pair of teams that are more focused on the future of their quarterback room and not building around someone whose time in the NFL is nearing the end.