Football is a game of inches. That often holds true on the field, but that mentality can be applied outside the field. The windows to make a move for a team often come by fast and close even faster. All throughout the season, there was a lot of discussion about whether the Atlanta Falcons should trade Kirk Cousins. Those talks only intensified later in the season, as teams seemingly in need of a serviceable quarterback started popping out.
After the Falcons' latest game, everyone is now wondering whether the Falcons could even trade Cousins. The veteran QB stepped in for the injured Michael Penix Jr against the Miami Dolphins. Cousins looked hapless against the porous Dolphins defense, mustering up 171 yards, completing 21 of his 31 pass attempts. Miami scored just 10 points against one of the worst teams in the league.
With how badly Cousins played against Miami, it's fair to wonder if the Falcons could still shop Cousins around. Dan Graziano thinks that Cousins still won't be traded, but he asserts that the reason won't be his awful game against the Dolphins.
“One is that, again, the Falcons don't want to trade Cousins,” Graziano reports. He likely will get cut after the season, but they want to keep him around for weeks just like this and hope he will perform better the next time they need him. But the second reason is that teams always are looking for quarterback help, and the Falcons could probably find a team willing to give them a decent draft pick or two if they decide to deal Cousins, especially since they've already paid such a high percentage of his contract.”
The NFL trade deadline is next week, which still gives time for the Falcons to try and trade Cousins for some value. However, the quarterback's insanely high contract and Atlanta's plans for Cousins this season make that unlikely. We'll see if some team that's in desperate need of quarterback help shells out an offer that the Falcons simply couldn't refuse.
