Russini: What I'm hearing on Kirk Cousins, QB injuries and more NFL trade buzz
The Athletic's Dianna Russini said on "Scoop City" that no team had called the Falcons about Kirk Cousins despite a wave of quarterback injuries around the league, even as Atlanta's asking price stayed steep.
A rash of quarterback injuries across the NFL in September 2025 revived speculation that the Atlanta Falcons could move on from backup Kirk Cousins, but The Athletic's Dianna Russini said on the "Scoop City" podcast that the trade market for him had not materialized. According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, cited in the same reporting, "No one has called the Falcons about Kirk Cousins" even as other teams around the league searched for quarterback depth.
The Falcons' asking price was described as a factor keeping the market quiet. Rapoport reported the team wanted "someone to eat some salary and a premium pick" in exchange for Cousins, who has been serving as Michael Penix Jr.'s backup in Atlanta since signing there in 2024.
What Russini and Palmer said on Scoop City
On the podcast, Russini and co-host Josh Palmer discussed Atlanta's stance directly. Palmer characterized the Falcons' internal thinking: "We want to keep him on this roster, unless there's a team that's going to come in and say, 'We'll pay for his full salary.'" That framing suggested Atlanta was not actively shopping Cousins so much as open to an offer that fully covered his contract.
The wider QB injury picture
The reporting placed the Cousins speculation against a backdrop of significant quarterback injuries league-wide that September, though most were described as short-term. The exception cited was Cincinnati's Joe Burrow, whose injury was characterized as a longer-term issue; the Bengals were reported to be moving forward with Jake Browning as his replacement, a shift that reduced overall demand for a veteran trade target like Cousins rather than increasing it.
The full list of injured Week 3 starters
Yahoo Sports reported that, in addition to Burrow, four other Week 3 starting quarterbacks were sidelined: Washington's Jayden Daniels, San Francisco's Brock Purdy, Minnesota's J.J. McCarthy and the New York Jets' Justin Fields. Despite that pileup of vacancies at the position leaguewide, the report emphasized that Burrow's was the only injury regarded as a longer-term absence, which meant most of the other affected teams were not shopping for the kind of established veteran the Falcons could offer -- reinforcing the Russini and Rapoport reporting that the market for Cousins had not developed even at a moment when demand for quarterbacks was unusually high.
Cousins' own 2025 performance
The reporting also noted that Cousins had struggled in his lone season as Atlanta's starter before losing the job to Michael Penix Jr., throwing a league-leading 16 interceptions and posting the lowest yards-per-attempt figure of his career at 6.95. He saw brief relief action for Atlanta after that starting change, including a stretch in a 30-0 loss to the Carolina Panthers in which he completed 5 of 7 passes for 29 yards -- performance data cited as part of the case that the Falcons' asking price, not a lack of leaguewide need, was what had kept the trade market silent.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by The Athletic's "Scoop City" podcast and NFL Network. It restores a story originally published on this site in September 2025; figures are as reported at the time.