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Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot claims benched quarterback Kirk Cousins could stick around Atlanta as a high-paid backup next season.

Fontenot said Thursday the franchise has no plan to release Cousins before his $10 million roster guarantee five days into the start of the new league year March 12, which had been widely reported in the aftermath of Atlanta benching Cousins and turning to Michael Penix Jr. for the final three games of the regular season.

Instead, Fontenot said the Falcons are fine abiding by the original structure and expectation of getting “two high-level seasons” of play from Cousins when they finalized a four-year, $180 million contract in March 2024.

“We understand that that didn’t happen,” Fontenot said. “Nobody was happy to make the switch at that time.

“So now what happens is we had to accelerate that plan and go to Mike earlier and yet the allocation of the quarterback position — the cap allocation — is we’re eighth in the league. That’s what we planned for with Kirk as the starter. He’s not the starter anymore but we’re very comfortable moving forward with him as the backup.”

Head coach Raheem Morris said after a Week 18 loss to the Carolina Panthers ended the season that he can tell by the look in Penix’s eyes that he’s the man for the job going forward.

Fontenot said health was a non-factor in Cousins’ struggles during a five-game stretch in which he threw one TD pass and nine interceptions, forcing Morris’ hand with the earlier-than-planned call to promote Penix. Cousins returned to the field after a season-ending Achilles injury with the Vikings in October 2023. He had bright spots before being benched.

Cousins engineered a game-winning drive in prime time to beat the Eagles in Week 2, steered the Falcons into first place with a 509-yard, four-TD overtime win against the Buccaneers on Oct. 3 and threw four more TD passes at Tampa in a 31-26 Atlanta win on Oct. 27. The next week, he had three TD passes and completed 79.2 percent of his passes in the Falcons’ 27-21 win over the Cowboys.

That’s when the five-game downturn began.

“Kirk is a great man and he’s been great support for Mike, a great teammate, great support for everybody in the building, so we’re very confident moving forward with him as the backup,” Fontenot said.

Cousins turns 37 in training camp and met the selection of Penix in the first round of the 2024 draft with surprise.

If the Falcons don’t keep Cousins, the alternative is absorbing a $65 million charge on the salary cap in dead money if he’s released. He is set to make $27.5 million in fully guaranteed base salary for the 2025 season and $37.5 million in remaining proration, according to reports. Cousins has a no-trade clause, but might be willing to entertain a chance to play a bigger role elsewhere in 2025. He was last a backup in 2014 playing behind Robert Griffin III in Washington.

Barring a trade, an accounting mechanism of releasing Cousins with a “post-June 1 designation” would allow the Falcons to spread the hit over two years: $40 million in 2025 and $25 million in 2026.

–Field Level Media