When Falcons head coach Raheem Morris addressed the media Monday following Week 18 in which they were eliminated from playoff contention, he left a door open many thought was closed and bolted with a chair propped under the knob.

The reporting is that Atlanta will not simply release Kirk Cousins to save money; they’ll be listening to trade offers and are content to roll into next season with him as the backup if they can’t get what they’re looking for. It’s been suggested that this is posturing for the sake of general manager Terry Fontenot being able to exercise some leverage in negotiations.

Frequently that’s the case in these circumstances and it doesn’t hurt to feign a desire to keep a player there’s no intention of retaining. It’s also a better strategy than alienating a quarterback on your roster (the way the Browns did with Baker Mayfield during the Deshaun Watson fiasco). But there’s more to it.

The reason many suspected Cousins would be released by the Falcons is contract related. He’s due $27.5 million for 2025, but, being fully guaranteed, that money will be his whether he’s on the team or not.

There’s also a $10 million roster bonus that locks in for 2026 on the fifth day of the upcoming league year in March. And that’s the part Atlanta can avoid owing Cousins if they cut him prior to that deadline.

So from their perspective, he’d be one of the best backups in the NFL and effectively cost only $11.255 million — $10 million of which wouldn’t even go on the coming year’s cap sheet. Because whether they release him or keep him, the $27.5 million in base salary for 2025 (minus offsets) is spent anyway.

Would it make sense for the Browns to take on some of that guaranteed money in a trade to secure Cousins on their 2025 roster? We’ll break that down concisely as we wrap it up right now in Part 3.

—@PoisonPill4