The Atlanta Falcons are not in a hurry to support their team by releasing quarterback Kirk Cousins by Sunday after seeing a shortage of quarterback chairs.
After the first day of the NFL New Year, there are three NFL nuggets.
Cousin’s Potential Trading Partners: Browns, Steelers
I was a bit surprised when I heard clearly from two league sources that the Falcons had released their cousins by Sunday to not trigger a fully guaranteed 2026 salary via roster bonuses. However, after spending time making additional calls, the motivations became clear. The Falcons are not inclined to make sure they don’t have a veteran bridge quarterback right now and pay a guaranteed 2025 salary of $27.5 million.
If it sounds like the Falcon is putting some teams in the crosshairs for the squeeze, that’s because they are. Specifically, the Cleveland Browns and perhaps the Pittsburgh Steelers will depend on what happens with Aaron Rodgers.
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Currently, Falcon works with two pieces of information. First, they want the Browns to bring in another quarterback to balance their positions, and in collaboration with Coach Kevin Stefanski, the most familiar manager, is a cost-effective option if he gets loosened by Atlanta. Second, the Falcons do not need to return some of the Steelers’ coaching staff to Russell Wilson in 2025. When Rodgers chooses or leaves the Giants in New York, Pittsburgh can see his cousin as an emergency option.
Feeling I get: Given the reality that if they don’t have other options, the Falcons are paying him in 2025, if he presents a challenge, he will keep his hold on as a back-up given the reality that he doesn’t have a history of throwing a fit. That doesn’t mean that your cousin is happy in the direction this is heading. He wants to start somewhere in the NFL next season, and when he met last week he told Blank to Arthur, the owner of the Falcons. But Blank and Falcon front offices take the stance that they are paying good money to their cousins. Also, there’s nothing that they have to pay him while making him happy by releasing him and helping out another franchise.
The exit here is a kind of asset offering that the Falcons will be happy with, at which point they abandon their share through trade and pay most, if not all, of their 2025 salary. And it appears that the target is the Browns.
Meanwhile, the Browns’ response is to do what they’re doing now. Line up the scheduled visit with Wilson on Thursday, leaving options open with backburner players like Joe Flaco and potential draft options.
Is Carolina RB Jonathon Brooks on the shelves for the 2025 season?
It was no secret that Jonathon Brooks’ second ACL laceration in the Carolina Panthers’ right knee was extremely concerned. The way the Panthers are working on may shed some light on how much interest the franchise is now.
The Panthers have signed a signature to revert Rico Dowdle to a one-year contract, and are heavily pointing to plans that appear to lean towards Brooks, who sits throughout the 2025 season. Having made the mistake with caution and put together plans for the next 18 months, Brooks will provide him with the opportunity to enter training camp in 2026 with complete health and as confident as possible about his right knee.
Even with that approach, league sources have shown that there are many concerns about Brooks’ development. Though last year’s 46th draft pick is very young (he won’t turn 22 until July), he had barely played high-level football before hitting the Panthers field again. Brooks only had 54 touches that he rushed over his first two seasons as a backup for the Texas Longhorns. It then followed by 12 touches as the Panthers rookie before tearing the ACL again.
It’s not much football development over the course of four years. And now there is a very realistic question as to whether Brooks will have access to his considerable ceiling again if his right knee is reduced.
The Panthers take the most careful approach possible. But the estimate that Brooks would bounce off and become a player was hoping that Carolina wanted the draft to be as unstable as ever.
Is Ohio’s RB Quinshon Judkins a first round pick?
With Boise State’s Ashton Janti A-Rock and North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton, you can feel Ohio’s Quinsion Judkins come out of the scouting combination. So it’s likely that the league will see the first round of running backs for the first time since 2018.
You can see at least one marker of lean to the rookie running back class about how the free agent running back class is unfolding. Cowboys.
Why: The team loves the talent of their next running back class and believes there may be even higher-end juices than they originally thought.
– The big winner of that rating looks like Judkins, who frowned upon among multiple high-ranking talent ratings when he ran a 4.48-second 40-yard dash at 6 feet and 221 pounds. He also showed off his explosiveness with a 38.5-inch vertical and an 11-foot wide jump, illuminating the interview room with his personality. One rater I spoke to told me that after the Buckeyes won the College Football National Championship, they advised him not to exercise at the combine. He refused that advice and instead of waiting for Ohio Pro Day, he trained in full. Given his preference for playing physical branded soccer, showing his love for contact, the team was happy to see him appear and compete in the combine when others didn’t.
It all reminded the team of Ole Miss True freshmen, one of the best running backs in the country in 2022 and who could play in the NFL as a 19-year-old before moving to Ohio State.
Look out for Judkins, who potentially scoos the first round of the draft. The team reflects his style at that position and needs a long-term running back solution (*cough* Pittsburgh Steelers).
