Things aren’t great in Atlanta for the Falcons.
They didn’t have any money to spend in free agency, and replaced guys like Drew Dalman, Grady Jarrett, Matthew Judon, and Justin Simmons with Ryan Nuezil, Morgan Fox, Leonard Floyd, and Jordan Fuller.
As one general manager put it, the Falcons replaced average with average, but that’s not even the worst part of the offseason. Every day Kirk Cousins remains on the roster a dark cloud hovers over Flowery Branch. If it weren’t for the excitement of the Michael Penix Jr. era beginning, there wouldn’t be much to smile about as a Falcons fan.
However, it’s worse in New Orleans for the Saints, which is something we can all laugh at. While the Falcons don’t have a Super Bowl-caliber roster, the Saints are in an awful spot with the salary cap to go along with an aging and overpriced roster. Plus, while Kirk Cousins is a distraction and a headache to deal with, it doesn’t compare to Derek Carr. On the Scoop City podcast, Diana Russini of The Athletic called the situation with Carr’s injured shoulder “fishy.”
“Maybe this is Derek Carr looking at the situation going, ‘I don’t want the Kirk Cousins treatment. I don’t want to be your quarterback.’ You guys draft a young guy and it’s basically, ‘When is this guy going to play?’” Russini said.
Rusinni added that it’s a fact the Saints are “on a mission” to draft a signal caller in the upcoming NFL Draft.
“I did have a lot of text messages and conversations over the last few days about the Derek Carr situation and it was very hard for me to find someone in football who said, ‘Oh, Derek’s definitely dealing with a serious shoulder injury.’ It was, ‘How long have you been doing this? You know what this is about.’ Trade Bait. End of the day, that’s what this is about,” Russini said.
To make this entire situation worse (for the Aints), Carr just had his contract restructured, converting nearly all of his $30 million base salary into a signing bonus. Now, if the Saints cut him, it would cost nearly $40 million; trading him would cost an additional $37.9 million. If it’s of the post-June 1 variety, cutting Carr wouldn’t save any money this year with a near $60 million dead cap hit in 2026. Trading him after June 1 would save barely over $1 million this year while leaving the same $59.67 million dead money on the 2026 salary cap.
Falcons fans shouldn’t throw stones from a glasshouse, but this might be the one instance where we are in the clear. The Saints are a dumpster fire.
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Photographer: David Jensen/Icon Sportswire
