Latest / AFR Saints / If Falcons Move On, Should Saints Move In On Kirk Cousins? | How Much Would Deal Cost New Orleans?

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If Falcons Move On, Should Saints Move In On Kirk Cousins? | How Much Would Deal Cost New Orleans? · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: now to the calendar. Flip in a June no, kid, Matt,
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  Speaker 1: I have a calendar. I see it on my phone
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  Speaker 1: every day right Well. In the NFL, June first is
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  Speaker 1: a very notable day because most contracts are structured to
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  Speaker 1: where you often hear the designation about post June one cuts, trades, releases,
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  Speaker 1: things like that, and effectively what you wait, whether there's
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  Speaker 1: a structure to wait until post June one, is it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't give you the necessary cap relief that you may
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  Speaker 1: covet as a team before the start of the league
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  Speaker 1: year where you have to be within cap compliance. So,
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  Speaker 1: for example, Kirk Cousins in his contract, he signed a
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  Speaker 1: four year, one hundred and eighty million dollars deal with
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  Speaker 1: the Atlanta Falcons, fifty million dollars signing bonus, one hundred
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  Speaker 1: million dollars guaranteed, one hundred million guaranteed. He played fourteen
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  Speaker 1: games last year for Atlanta. Man, when you look at
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  Speaker 1: what's on the books for the Falcons and his dead
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  Speaker 1: cap number for twenty twenty five is seventy five million dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Now post June one release, that dead number goes down
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  Speaker 1: to fifty million. That is still a massive, massive haul
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  Speaker 1: against your cap for someone that's not gonna play, But
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  Speaker 1: is twenty five million bucks against your cap for a
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  Speaker 1: player that you don't anticipate having. So when you look
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  Speaker 1: at post June one as it pertains to Kirk Cousins,
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  Speaker 1: the question for the Falcons is you keep Kirk Cousins
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  Speaker 1: on your roster as a malcontent because he wants to
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  Speaker 1: be a starter. I mean, he's later in his career.
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  Speaker 1: He's a guy, it's thirty six years old, he'll turn
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  Speaker 1: thirty seven in August. Knows he doesn't have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of runway left. Wants to go somewhere where he can
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  Speaker 1: play and where he can win. Okay, those options may
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  Speaker 1: not be ready of readily available for Kirk Cousins. But
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  Speaker 1: one thing's for certain. As long as he's there in Atlanta,
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  Speaker 1: it's Michael Panics's show now. So Kirk Cousins wants out,
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  Speaker 1: and the Falcons have a decision to make. Do you
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  Speaker 1: grant him that and let him go try to find
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  Speaker 1: a place to be a starter where he can play
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  Speaker 1: and win, or do you let him sit on the
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  Speaker 1: bench behind Michael Pennix. Maybe he's a mentor. And I
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  Speaker 1: don't know what Atlanta's going to do. I don't cover
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  Speaker 1: the Falcons on a day to day basis. I don't
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  Speaker 1: have ends within that front office. I don't know. I'm
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  Speaker 1: just telling you candidly. I don't know what they're going
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  Speaker 1: to do. But CBS had a piece up today listing
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  Speaker 1: potential cut and trade your post June one cut and
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  Speaker 1: trade candidates, and the first one on the list was
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  Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins. And they know Kirk Cousins was a no
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  Speaker 1: show for the start of voluntary voluntary OTAs and he
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  Speaker 1: wants a fresh start. So I mentioned they could save
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven and a half million dollars by trading Cousins
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  Speaker 1: after June first or cutting him. But the real question
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  Speaker 1: would be if there's a trade partner. And that's the
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  Speaker 1: challenge because, as we often say, with trades, you can
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  Speaker 1: say you want to trade someone, but you're not just
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  Speaker 1: trading for the player. You're trading for the player and
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  Speaker 1: the contract. So would another team give it Lanta an
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  Speaker 1: asset to take on the remainder of Kirk cousins contract.
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  Speaker 1: Highly unlikely. They're not going to find a trade partner.
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  Speaker 1: So Atlanta's got two options. One, you keep Kirk Cousins
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  Speaker 1: as a very very expensive backup, or you release him.
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  Speaker 1: You're now pot committed to Michael Pennix. You move on
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  Speaker 1: with whatever your quarterback room is going to look like
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  Speaker 1: behind Penix, and Cousins has an opportunity to go sign
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  Speaker 1: somewhere else. I mentioned this cbspiece. The reason it's interesting
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  Speaker 1: is because they do mention potential landing spots as the
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  Speaker 1: Saints and the Steelers, and the pu is that the
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  Speaker 1: Falcons will release him and then he'll sign with the Saints.
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  Speaker 1: Now that's Cody Benjamin over at CBS. That's just one
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  Speaker 1: person's opinion. I don't know necessarily that. I think there's
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  Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of validity to that, and if you're
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  Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins, it would certainly stand a reason that you
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  Speaker 1: would be more interested in playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers
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  Speaker 1: than the New Orleans Saints, because the Pittsburgh Steelers at
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  Speaker 1: least are a team that is more stable, more talented
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  Speaker 1: right there around five hundred, Maybe he could be be
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  Speaker 1: the thing that pushes them from that five hundred record
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  Speaker 1: to the eleven twelve win season that gets them into
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  Speaker 1: the playoffs and maybe they make a run. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: saying I believe Kirk Cousins Kanna will do that. I'm
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  Speaker 1: just saying that's a better option if available. Then to
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  Speaker 1: quarterback the New Orleans Saints. Again, That'll all play out
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  Speaker 1: how it may. The question, dous is, if you're the Saints,
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  Speaker 1: would you want Kirk Cousins. By now, you probably know
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  Speaker 1: where I fall on this, and the answer they resounding absolutely. Now.
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  Speaker 1: The caveat is what is the cost. To be abundantly clear,
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  Speaker 1: I am not okay trading for Kirk Cousins. I am
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  Speaker 1: not okay giving up an asset to Atlanta to take
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  Speaker 1: on an aging veteran player. One of my big mantras
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  Speaker 1: this whole off season about the Saints is you need
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  Speaker 1: to purge the aging expensive players and get younger and
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  Speaker 1: more affordable. That's how you fix the cap. That's ultimately
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  Speaker 1: how you fix your roster. You get younger and less
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  Speaker 1: expensive instead of older and expensive. So like, that's why
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  Speaker 1: I didn't love the Justin Reid signing. I think Justin
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  Speaker 1: Reid's a much better safety than anything you had, but
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  Speaker 1: you got older and expensive. I want to get younger
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  Speaker 1: and less expensive, and that means you're gonna stink for
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  Speaker 1: a little while. But I'm okay with that because you
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  Speaker 1: have to go through it. It's like Andy Duframe crawling
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  Speaker 1: through three hundred yards of the most vile stuff you
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  Speaker 1: could ever imagine. But that old Mexican island's on the
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  Speaker 1: other end that he went to and sanding his boat
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  Speaker 1: until Red came and joined him. Anyway, you get the point.
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  Speaker 1: You gotta be willing to take two steps back to
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  Speaker 1: take ten steps forward. So I'm okay with the same
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  Speaker 1: stink in this general thing they are. But I'm okay
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  Speaker 1: with that. I can live with that. I'm not gonna
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  Speaker 1: site her and crushing when they lose every every week
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  Speaker 1: because I understand what they gotta go through now, So
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  Speaker 1: all that to say, I'm not good giving up an
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  Speaker 1: asset for Kirk Cousins. But if the Falcons release him
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  Speaker 1: and you can go to a manageable one year deal
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  Speaker 1: for kirk Cousins, maybe similar to something that we've seen,
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  Speaker 1: Like I don't know Russ's deal with the Giants. Look
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  Speaker 1: at any other aging veteran right now and say, what
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  Speaker 1: does their contract look like on a short term deal?
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  Speaker 1: I could, like, I could easily stomach that for a year,
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  Speaker 1: and not only stomach. I think that's a better option.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I was the one who sat here and
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  Speaker 1: said I am all for signing Aaron Rodgers. And I
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  Speaker 1: get it you're gonna roll your eyes about that because
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  Speaker 1: of the perception and the darkness retreats and all the
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  Speaker 1: stuff that goes along with it. But Aaron Rodgers is
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  Speaker 1: a future Hall of Famer, and if I could have
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  Speaker 1: him in a quarterback room with my young quarterback, that
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  Speaker 1: I think is gonna be my franchise. I want that mentorship,
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  Speaker 1: the same he gave to Jordan Love, the same we
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  Speaker 1: talked about that Drew Brees got from Doug Flutie. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I want that. Patrick Mahomes got to sit and watch
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  Speaker 1: Alex Smith for a year before he had to go start.
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  Speaker 1: I think that could be invaluable for Tyler Shuck and
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  Speaker 1: maybe even for Spencer Ratler. So yes, you give me
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  Speaker 1: a guy like Kirk Cousins who's thirteen years into his
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  Speaker 1: NFL career, has played one hundred and is started one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty nine games. He's a four time Pro Bowler.
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  Speaker 1: He was a guy who himself was a mid round
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  Speaker 1: pick of Washington and had to constant that le prove himself.
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  Speaker 1: Washington kept franchise tagging him, they wouldn't commit to him.
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  Speaker 1: Finally he goes to Minnesota, they do. He becomes a
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  Speaker 1: franchise quarterback in Minnesota. Like, you give me that guy
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  Speaker 1: for a year to help my young guys learn and
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  Speaker 1: grow and develop. Yeah, I'll take that. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: Russ's contract with the Giants is a one year, ten
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  Speaker 1: and a half million dollar deal. If the Saints could
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  Speaker 1: get Kirk Cousins on a one year, ten and a
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  Speaker 1: half million dollar deal like the Giants gave Russ to
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  Speaker 1: bring some veteran leadership stability to your quarterback room, hell yeah,
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  Speaker 1: sign me up immediately. So I don't know that Atlanta's
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  Speaker 1: going to release him and even if they do, I
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  Speaker 1: don't know that the Saints would be at the top
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  Speaker 1: of his list. But if Atlanta releases Kirk Cousins, and
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  Speaker 1: if he's willing to sign in New Orleans, then New
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  Speaker 1: Orleans should absolutely sign Kirk Cousins because you have to
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  Speaker 1: put a veteran presence in that quarterback room. I suppose
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  Speaker 1: you don't have to. I mean, you can go into
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  Speaker 1: it this way, but it would greatly benefit you, not
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  Speaker 1: just on the field in twenty twenty five, but long
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  Speaker 1: term as well, giving these young quarterbacks a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of a boost as they start their career instead of
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  Speaker 1: dumping the weight of the expectation of entire franchise on
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  Speaker 1: a rookie with a new coach and a bad roster
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  Speaker 1: around him. Yes, I would welcome Kirk Cousins on a
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  Speaker 1: one year deal to New Orleans if Atlanta cuts And
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  Speaker 1: how much would he want to stick to Atlanta The
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  Speaker 1: few times you played