Kirk Cousins' Contract Drama Unfolds Amid NFL Tensions

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00:00I, I feel like all season long, uh, the three of us have all taken chances.

00:05It kind of, Hey cap, the Kirk cousin thing's going bad and you've

00:09understandably been like, yeah, but they're paying him way too much money.

00:14Apparently it went so bad.

00:16Atlanta said, we don't really care about that.

00:19What have you been hearing around this whole situation in Atlanta?

00:23Boy, Kevin, let me give you the cliff notes version.

00:25We don't have an hour.

00:26So here's what happened.

00:27Okay.

00:28Here's what happened.

00:30Cousins are regressed so badly over the last five weeks that they kind of felt,

00:33you know what, this is time now.

00:35I know the way it works with NFL teams.

00:37We'll never say publicly anything badly about the Giants, but let's, let's be real

00:40here.

00:41The Giants defense is decimated by injury.

00:43Okay.

00:43All three levels of their defense, this game's at home.

00:47Michael panics is a outstanding pastor.

00:50We'll get to him in a second, but let's get back to cousins here.

00:53You are right.

00:53The way you set it up.

00:54I know you're trying to be funny, but you're actually right.

00:57They're not worried about the contract anymore.

01:00They own 27 and a half million next season.

01:02That's fully guaranteed that the two year take, which is incredible is 90 million.

01:06It's not 90 million, which is incorrect.

01:08People are saying, oh, it's 90 million this season.

01:09It's not.

01:10They guarantee 90 million, 45 and 45, really, if you want to look at it, 40, 45

01:15million on average per season and 90 million total over the first two seasons,

01:19fully guaranteed.

01:20There's nothing they could do.

01:22I mean, if they cut them, they own it.

01:23That's not what they want to do, but here's the problem with this contract.

01:27And it's just like with Derek Carr's winnings with the Raiders.

01:30He, Kirk Cousins has a no trade clause.

01:33So basically, even if three to four teams in March, Kevin, go to, go to Mike

01:37McCarty, his agent and cousins and say, Hey, listen, we've got three to four

01:41teams here that are willing to work with us.

01:43Would you work with us?

01:45Kirk could say, no, you can do whatever you want.

01:47I'm over this money.

01:48And I want, I want to control where I go.

01:50And he does.

01:50That's what a no trade clause does.

01:53You control your destiny, not the club.

01:55So it, the leverage clearly is here with the player, no matter how much the

01:59Falcons feel like they'd rather not cut them, there's no way he's coming out of

02:03bat as a backup.

02:04I know there's stuff out there.

02:05It ain't happening.

02:0627 and a half million for a backup.

02:07Forget about it.

02:08You're not paying that.

02:09If we are looking forward to a double down on that Atlanta scenario.

02:13I I've said it multiple times this week, Adam, I think it's a healthy move for

02:16the organization and the right move, but talking about the future, like Arthur

02:19blank is the owner, obviously he's going to call a lot of shots when you're

02:22writing a check that big, Terry Fondo, the general manager, and also Raheem

02:26Morris is the head coach.

02:27Any internal turmoil that shows like this move was healthy and that these two will

02:31move forward, talking about the head coach and the general manager, or do we

02:33think that they may part ways with one or maybe both of these once they say, well,

02:37we got this wrong, or is the head coach going to survive and the GM going to be

02:40out per se?

02:41Oh, no, the head, Raheem Morris isn't going anywhere.

02:43Now I know publicly Morris will look, let's put it this way.

02:48He didn't exactly back her cousins, which is if you're Kirk cousins, they reason

02:52to say, tell the Falcons.

02:53Nope, nope.

02:54I'm going to use my no trade clause.

02:56I control my own destiny here, but I don't see Terry Fondo being in danger here.

03:02See, I remember, and Kevin remembers this, when we had the draft coverage here on

03:05sports score, we were shocked.

03:07We couldn't understand why in the world would you select Michael Penix when you've

03:12guaranteed 90 million no matter what, but the owner, as I understand it, Arthur

03:16blank, he signed off on it.

03:19You're right, by the way, Donnie, the way you set it up, the owner has to be on

03:22board, all major transactions.

03:24The owner is always going to be involved.

03:26He's going to want to know not only what they want to do, but they want to know

03:29the why, but their thought process, as I was explained back when it happened, if

03:34they figured cousins would be the starter for two seasons, he's clearly not going

03:37to be, I mean, basically based on contract structure, they would turn to Penix in

03:43year three, but that's not what's happening here.

03:44And clearly, yes, Fondo missed badly on this, but the hope here with Penix, let's

03:49talk about him for a second, super aggressive thrower.

03:53I know he's a little bit older, but that doesn't matter.

03:55A quarterback, he's had an injury history.

03:57That does matter, but he's a super aggressive thrower.

03:59I saw us in person at the senior ball last January, but he threw the ball really

04:03well.

04:04And look, the hope here is that Kyle Pitts gets the ball more because cousins

04:09simply, you know, it through this five game slide here, as you notice pits more

04:14often than not, doesn't get the football.

04:15Darnell Mooney, who's been a really good acquisition, he needs to get the ball

04:18more.

04:19And obviously Drake London does as well.

04:21So the feeling around the club, as I'm told, is behind the scenes.

04:24Penix has done very, very well in practice.

04:27They're hoping that it manifests today against a beat up Giants defense.

04:30Cap, I want to keep it there with Penix.

04:32And the reason why I bring that up is if this was the thought process all along,

04:36right, why didn't they allow Michael Penix the opportunity to throw in the

04:41preseason?

04:42I watched the game at the end when they were getting blown out by Denver 38 to

04:46six, the last eight minutes.

04:48He's all he's doing is handing the football off.

04:50Why didn't they allow him game opportunities to throw the football?

04:55If this was the big picture outlook and their season was really, they did it

05:00actually in the joint practices, particularly the one against Miami.

05:03As I understand, they also in training camp practice, he took plenty of, he got

05:07plenty of reps just to show what he can do.

05:09But see Joe, the problem is they made this commitment with cousins and remember

05:13coming back from the 20 killies, he had to show that it was right.

05:17And I know talk to some people have graded their, their tape.

05:20Uh, there've been some people around the league that didn't quite like the scheme

05:23that they've asked cousins to run it.

05:24It's West coast, but the type of throws they made him, they asked him to make.

05:28It just didn't work overall.

05:29Very inconsistent.

05:30It's what's ironic is Joe, his best game as a Falcon was against the team that

05:37they're competing against in that division, that crazy game he had against

05:39Tampa where everyone thought cousins was back.

05:41And by the way, the Falcons own the tiebreaker.

05:44They absolutely do.

05:45Because of that win, they're still look, they're a game behind here.

05:49It's going to be hard for them to win division, but they're

05:50still alive for a playoff spot.

05:52And that was their thinking.

05:53Give panics a chance.

05:55With a high leverage situation where they're still in the playoff race.

05:58I get that part of it.

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