For a piece published Wednesday, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell suggested that the Dallas Cowboys could consider replacing starting quarterback Dak Prescott with Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins next offseason after Atlanta made signal-caller Michael Penix Jr. the eighth overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.
“They would have paid a whopping $62.5M to Cousins for one season, but that’s a sunk cost by now,” Barnwell said about the Falcons potentially trading Cousins roughly 12 months after they signed him to a four-year, $180M contract that included $100M guaranteed back in March. “Trading Cousins would leave the Falcons with $37.5M in dead money on their cap next year, but it would save $2.5M in cap space and free up $37.5M in cash spend over the ensuing two years.”
There’s plenty to unpack here.
Prescott is in the final year of his Cowboys contract and seemingly isn’t close to signing an extension ahead of training camp while sitting on a contract that includes no-trade and no-tag clauses. Meanwhile, Dallas has no proven Prescott replacement on its roster. The Cowboys acquired Trey Lance from the San Francisco 49ers last summer, but Lance has yet to take the primary backup job from Cooper Rush.
“The Cowboys could commit to paying Cousins at least that $37.5M for one year of work, with $27.5M guaranteed in 2025 and another $10M guaranteed for 2026, regardless of whether he is on the roster,” Barnwell continued. “If he sticks around, the Cowboys would pay him $72.5M for two years, or an average of $36.3M per season. That’s just over half of what Prescott is projected to make per year on his new deal.”
As to whether Cousins may want to leave Atlanta next offseason, it’s hardly a secret he didn’t know when he signed his contract that the Falcons would spend a first-round draft pick on a quarterback in April. While all involved are publicly saying the right things about the Cousins-Penix partnership ahead of training camp, logic suggests the veteran signal-caller who turns 36 years old in August could feel at least slightly betrayed by his current employer and may already be thinking about a future divorce.
Of course, such speculation will become meaningless if Prescott inks an extension this summer. For now, the quarterback situations in Dallas and Atlanta could make for fascinating storylines from the start of training camp through at least the end of August.
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