Throughout a Saturday morning appearance on “SportsCenter,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler repeated earlier studies that the Pittsburgh Steelers may pursue Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins if free agent Aaron Rodgers chooses to not play for the Steelers later this yr.
In the course of the newest version of his “Overreaction Monday” podcast, league insider and NFL Community persona Wealthy Eisen shared a harsh fact for the Steelers about viewing Cousins as a attainable backup plan forward of the summer time.
“In the event you really feel [Rodgers is] simply going to go away you on the altar, properly, what that does is it places you over a barrel in a negotiation to get someone like Kirk Cousins,” Eisen mentioned, per Jeremy Pike of Steelers Depot. “…The minute you raise the telephone and name Terry Fontenot and ask, ‘What about Kirk Cousins,’ he is aware of you are involved about Rodgers not displaying up. So, you are over a barrel already.”
Fontenot, the final supervisor of the Falcons, reportedly wants a crew “to pay a good portion” of the remaining assured cash connected to the four-year, $180M contract Cousins acquired from Atlanta in March 2024. Whereas Cousins misplaced the Atlanta beginning job to 2024 first-round draft decide Michael Penix Jr. this previous December, Fontenot has insisted he’ll maintain onto the 36-year-old except a membership matches the Falcons’ asking worth for the veteran.
In the meantime, it certainly seems that some inside the Steelers need outsiders to imagine the membership can be “high-quality” if it needed to begin longtime backup Mason Rudolph in September. Maybe such leaks are Pittsburgh’s means of telling Fontenot and Co. that they could have to decrease their expectations concerning a Cousins commerce in the event that they wish to get something for him from the Steelers within the occasion that Rodgers rejects the AFC North franchise.
Additionally on Monday, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio steered that Rodgers will not signal a deal by the point the Steelers start the primary of six organized crew exercise practices set to happen from Tuesday by June 5. It is unclear if Steelers normal supervisor Omar Khan would name Fontenot about Cousins if Rodgers remained unsigned by the completion of Pittsburgh’s obligatory minicamp, which is scheduled to run from June 10 by June 12.
It is also possible that Fontenot might finally wish to get Cousins out of the constructing to make sure a quarterback controversy will not come up if Penix performs poorly early within the upcoming marketing campaign. That mentioned, it is tough to think about a crew aside from the Steelers would surrender something of worth for Cousins except a unique starter suffers a big harm between now and the in-season commerce deadline.
