The buzz surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins seems to be picking up steam as Aaron Rodgers continues to drag his feet with voluntary OTAs starting tomorrow. ESPN NFL insider Jeremy Fowler reported over the weekend that Cousins is on the Steelers’ radar and he expanded on those thoughts today on SportsCenter.
“I had some conversations with people this week that led me to believe that Cousins is, at the very least, on the Steelers’ radar if something were to fall through on Rodgers,” Fowler said. “Cousins has $37.5 million in guarantees between this year and next year. Somebody’s on the hook for that money, whether it’s $4 million, $20 million, whatever it is. But the feeling around the league is that Atlanta has not been willing to budge on this. They haven’t shown a lot of interest in trading Cousins. It would take a hefty price tag for another team to wiggle that out.”
The Falcons invested a large amount of money in Kirk Cousins at the same time as they made a change at head coach. He was supposed to be a big part of the new era of football in Atlanta only for him to get benched after 14 starts in one of the worst seasons of his career as a full-time starter. Instead of cutting ties prior to his roster bonus in March, the Falcons allowed that option to hit and doubled down on their approach to get something in return for their large investment.
To this point, there doesn’t seem to be a logical landing spot other than the Steelers, and that is only if Rodgers decides to retire or hold out for another team.
According to Josina Anderson during free agency in March, a third-round pick was “potentially actionable” in a trade. Usually with teams splitting salaries in a trade, the amount of money the new team is willing to take on lowers the draft pick it is willing to give up.
Even with a likely big-money extension for T.J. Watt, the Steelers have plenty of cash and cap space to work with. On the flipside, they have been intentionally stockpiling 2026 draft capital. It wouldn’t make sense to deviate from that tactic for an aging quarterback who looked one more bad season from being out of the league a year ago. Perhaps they would be willing to take on a significant amount of the salary in 2025 in exchange for a sixth- or seventh-round pick next year.
“As one source told me, if they were willing to take a small percentage, like let’s say $7 or $8 million of that money, a deal would be done by now,” Fowler said.
What has changed since free agency is that there is virtually no trade market for Cousins. Unless the Falcons are willing to eat all of his salary and get nothing in return for him, they have very little leverage over the Steelers in potential negotiations.
As of right now, there is no reason to believe anything has changed with Rodgers or his likelihood of signing with the Steelers. But this Cousins trade scenario could heat up fast if that changes.
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