Kirk Cousins asks for, gets, meeting with Arthur Blank

Myles Garrett wanted a meeting with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam. Haslam said no.

Kirk Cousins wanted a meeting with Falcons owner Arthur Blank. Blank said yes.

Albert Breer of SI.com reports that Cousins requested, and received, a meeting with Blank regarding Cousins's future with the team.

As we see it, the Falcons and Cousins are in potentially awkward game of contract chicken. Cousins has $27.5 million fully guaranteed in 2025. Another $10 million in injury guarantees will shift to full guarantees on March 17. He also has a no-trade clause, which allows him to block any effort to ship his contract to a new team.

If Cousins won't agree to a trade, the Falcons can squat on him for 2025, forcing him to be the backup to new starter Michael Penix, Jr. A trade would keep Cousins from getting another crack at the market; last year, he emerged with a $90 million, fully-guaranteed deal from the Falcons.

Some believe that, if Cousins is released, he'd take a Russell Wilson-style deal for the one-year minimum of $1.255 million. This would put the Falcons on the hook for the remaining $25.745 million.

But the 2025 market for Cousins could be very different than last year's market for Wilson. No one was going to pay Wilson more than the $39 million the Broncos owed him for 2024. Someone might pay Cousins more than $27.5 million in 2025.

Thus, the pitch to Blank could have been as simple as this — release me, and you'll end up being completely off the hook.

If there's a team that will pay Cousins more than $27.5 million this year, that team might prefer to just trade for Cousins's current contract. Which would be even better for Blank and the Falcons. Not only would they shed the financial obligation but they'd also get something from the next team.

Of course, no trade can happen without Cousins's consent.

Which brings us back to the game of chicken. Cousins can make $37.5 million by doing nothing, if the Falcons don't cut him. If, however, they don't cut him, he won't play in 2025 — barring an injury to Penix. And if the Falcons can't trade Cousins because he won't waive his no-trade clause, they can't avoid paying him another $27.5 million without cutting him.

So maybe that was Cousins's message to the man who signs the checks. There's a way for Blank to avoid owing Cousins another $27.5 million (or, if they're truly committed to not cutting Cousins, $37.5 million). The only way to do that is to release him.

And if, in the aftermath of Tampering Central a/k/a the Scouting Combine, Cousins's agent knows that some other team would pay more Cousins than $27.5 million this year, the ultimate message from Cousins to Blank could have been very simple and clear: Cut me, and you'll owe me nothing.

Frankly, if Cousins and agent Mike McCartney know that someone else will pay Cousins more than $27.5 million for 2025, maybe Cousins boiled his message down to a direct business proposition for Blank.

Cut me, and I'll waive all rights to ongoing pay. Keep me, and I'll refuse to waive my no-trade clause.

For Blank, that would be no different than someone handing him a $37.5 million check.