Another day in the NFL offseason brings a fresh twist to the quarterback carousel. This time, the spotlight shifts to the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons thought they had it all figured out when they backed up the Brinks truck for Kirk Cousins last offseason—four years, $180 million. But, yeah… that didn’t exactly go as planned.

Cousins struggled, tossing 18 touchdowns and 16 picks, and by the end of the season, he was watching from the sidelines while rookie Michael Penix Jr. took the reins. And now? Well, looks like Cousins’ gonna continue his second year with the Falcons—as QB1 or backup, no clue.

But, according to the Falcons’ general manager, Terry Fontenot, who said, “The plan right now is to pay QB Kirk Cousins his upcoming bonus and move forward with him on the team.” The kicker? Well, the general manager reiterated that Cousins will be the backup QB in the 2025 season. Penix Jr. must be fist-bumping the air right about now.

Now, hold that thought because we’re not done yet. You see, the veteran QB signed a hefty contract deal with the Atlanta team. The contract terms include a juicy $50M signing bonus, a cool $100M guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $45M. Now that the team’s gonna move forward with him, the GM declared that they’re comfortable keeping Cousins as the backup, paying him $27.5M in 2025 while also triggering another $10M to become fully guaranteed for 2026 on March 17.

Translation? The guy has a hefty base salary in this season, plus he has a $10M bonus that will trigger on the fifth day of this league year. That’s a lot of cash for a backup QB, right? But the Falcons are OK with it—kind of like Dom Toretto spending a fortune on cars just to send them flying off cliffs.

This offseason’s giving late night in the middle of June kinda heat waves. But, let’s not sugarcoat it. The best-case scenario for the Atlanta team to stick with Cousins could be his 509-yard effort in a win over the Bucs last season. Besides, the guy’s turning 37-years-old soon. That means it’s unlikely that the other teams want to manage his hefty contract if the Falcons want to trade him.

On top of that, the team’s probably looking a mentor for Penix Jr. After all, the young QB is entering his sophomore year of the NFL.

Kirk Cousins backup QB means Penix Jr. is QB1

So far, what do we know and what have we learnt? For starters, we know that the Falcons’ GM wants Kirk Cousins as the backup QB in the 2025 season. “Kirk handled that really well at the end of the season,” Fontenot said. “Obviously, Kirk’s a really talented player, he’s a great man, all those things. Again, he handled that role well at the end of the season.”

On the other hand, we’ve learnt that Michael Penix Jr. is gonna take the reins—literally. The guy sh0cked everyone when the Falcons drafted him in the first round with 8th overall pick, given the team’s already signed Cousins on a hefty deal. However, the Penix signed his rookie deal worth $22.8M. Sure, the QB started his rookie season as a backup to Cousins, but then came the mid December.

Following a poor performance from Cousins, the Falcons announced that Penix would be the QB1 beginning with the week 16 game against the New York Giants. In his first career start, the 24-year-old completed 18 of 27 passes for 202 yards and an interception. However, in his second start of the season, the Falcons got eliminated after losing to yet another rookie QB—Jayden Daniels of the Commanders.

The guy wrapped up his season recording 775 yards and racked up three touchdowns in five games. Fast forward to now and the Michael Penix Jr. is gonna be the QB1 for the Atlanta Falcons.