Bijan Robinson Fans Flame of Kirk Cousins Return to Atlanta Falcons

It will be a matter of fierce debate moving forward whether or not the Atlanta Falcons should bite the bullet and make Kirk Cousins one of the highest paid backup quarterbacks in NFL history.

The Falcons will attempt to find a trade partner who can take away at least some of Cousins’s $27.5-million guaranteed salary before the new-league year in March. If they can't, it's a question of whether they want Cousins to count $65-million against the cap the next-two seasons or $75-million when his $10 million bonus hits next month. 

In the final analysis, general manager Terry Fontenot will be hoping head coach Raheem Morris, Falcons players and Cousins himself are comfortable with the former starter being on the roster in 2025… plus paying him an extra $10 million. 

As the Falcons now very obviously transition toward a much younger group of core team leaders; it could be strongly argued that Cousins could still provide vital veteran leadership.

Bearing in mind the limited experience young starter Michael Penix Jr. has under his belt, perhaps keeping Cousins around makes a lot of logical sense, if he’s willing to embrace that role in the final years of his career rather than trying to find a new home to be a starter.

Change is certainly in the air one way or the other, and Falcons star running back Bijan Robinson will of course help spearhead the youthful group of fresh leadership.

So during a visit on Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons own podcast, Robinson sounded like he learned a lot from how Cousins dealt with his benching without letting his ego get in the way. 

"Kirk's like, a bro,” Robinson told Parson. he's a really good teammate dog. Just how he got a call and was accepting of it. And for him to be a vet like that and just take a step back to Mike."

Robinson's inside line on how Cousins handled his demotion after a string of turnover prone outings may indeed point toward his capacity to morph into a classic veteran mentor for Penix.

Passing on his wealth of experience at 36 years old also seems just about right for Cousins, but we all know that many a time served signal caller has refused to lie down with such good grace. Knowing he needed to play the good teammate for three weeks is a lot easier to stomach for a player with just a couple of seasons left than 12 months. 

Going down the stretch run after Penix assumed control, it only led to Robinson's respect for Cousins growing. The Falcons runner was fully aware of how difficult it is for an old gun slinger to lay down his pistols.

"Like that gives me a lot of respect, because like any quarterback that's in a starting position and played in the league for that long and has to become the number two guy, bro, they're probably like, want to leave the team," Robinson admitted. "Yeah, be pissed off. But he helped him. But he helped him. I was like, that's real."

Ultimately, no matter how Robinson.and others feel deep down about how good a teammate Cousins is, it shouldn't be allowed to fundamentally drive the final decision over his future in Atlanta.

Financially speaking, Fontenot is bound to be going to bed at night dreaming of a scenario where pretty much anybody takes Cousins and a portion of his salary cap agony off his hands.

After all, bringing in a cut price veteran is pretty low hanging fruit in the NFL these days, so making those vital savings is bound to be the main mission of the Falcons front office this offseason.