How Kirk Cousins Kept Getting Paid Until He Passed Tom Brady

There's a guy at your job nobody can explain. Then the payroll sheet leaks and he's out earning the guy whose face is on the building. In the NFL, that guy is Kirk Cousins. It is extremely alarming that he only had one playoff win in 12 years. Kirk Cousins has one playoff win, no ring, and more career money than Tom Brady. He ranks third all-time in career earnings, counting the 2027 check, and he is the only man in the top five who never won a ring. So how does a quarterback with no rings out-earn a man with seven? So I didn't feel like I needed to just take a deal. Rings get won in February. Kirk Cousins gets paid in March. At every NFL stop, somebody was already planning for life after him, and every one of them paid him anyway. One coach said on-camera that the wrong quarterback could get him fired. He got fired, and Kirk kept getting paid. The last check comes due in March 2027. From a team with an owner you would recognize. Kirk Cousins became somebody's backup plan before he ever played a college snap. He can still tell you about the phone call. His future coach, Mark D'Antonio, called to say Michigan State was offering another quarterback, too. I know you've signed Nick Foles. You guys are gonna have to compete. Kirk was a high school kid being told, politely, that he had competition. Five years later, it happened again, only bigger. Washington paid a fortune to trade up for Robert Griffin III, then took Kirk two days later in the fourth round. Everybody knew which quarterback was the franchise, and which one was the spare tire. The rookie deal topped out at $2.57 million for four years. It turned out to be the last money of his career that a team could ever walk away from. But nine months later, he was at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, learning how the money worked. He sat with his agent, Mike McCartney, and by his own admission, he knew nothing about contracts. Sitting at the Super Bowl after my rookie year, and Joe Flacco is about to be a free agent, and so the entire negotiation will be based off of two franchise tags and what those two franchise tags are worth. Flacco won that game, and that March he signed for $120.6 million, the richest deal the league had ever seen. Flacco needed a ring to get paid like that. The rookie in the stands had just been handed a map that didn't. Then Griffin lost the job, and Kirk finally got a real one. Washington trailed Tampa Bay 24-0 at halftime. Kirk dragged it all the way back. On the walk to the locker room, he shouted something at a reporter. It was the biggest comeback in team history, and it came in the last season of his rookie deal. The map from New Orleans was about to be used on the people who drafted him. When the rookie deal ran out, McCartney pulled out the play he had drawn up in New Orleans. My agent just said, this is Joe Flacco all over again. The ask was three years, fully guaranteed, reportedly $58.5 million, which works out to $19.5 million a year. So that March, Washington tagged him instead, at just under $20 million for a single year. That was more per year than the price they had just refused. That one no would cost Washington its quarterback. Mike Florio summed up Washington's long-term offer. Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder, you put two, you know... sharp business minds together and you get a $16 million long-term offer for the guy that you've offered $20 million under the franchise tag. Imagine HR sending you that letter. We're paying you $20 million for the year, but we'd love to lock you in at 16. You'd frame it. One bad injury could end the whole plan, and Kirk knew it. So why wasn't he scared? He had watched a quarterback come back from a torn knee. Guy had seen Tom Brady tear his ACL in 2008, and he comes back and plays another Years later, that same Tom Brady would turn up in Kirk's money one more time, and not as a role model. The next year, on a second tag, team president Bruce Allen went on camera to take credit for Washington's offer. He said it was $53 million fully guaranteed at signing, and that no quarterback had ever had more guaranteed on day one. Then he kept getting the quarterback's name wrong. A Washington Post reporter counted six in about two minutes. The PR staff blamed the accent. So, he said no. And that January, Washington went and found itself a quarterback. The new guy reportedly got $71 million guaranteed. So, rather than guarantee Kirk the deal he asked for, they guaranteed Alex Smith. His coach, Jay Gruden, called him the day after the trade to say they couldn't wait on him. And Kirk thought that was fair. You can't just... You can't just wait on me and then be left at the altar." All Washington got back when he left was a compensatory third-round pick. He was 29, and for the first time in his career, nobody owned him. Nick Foles, the other quarterback from that 2007 phone call, won Super Bowl MVP in the Vikings' own stadium. Less than a month later, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer stood at a podium and repeated what he had told his GM. What I don't want to do is say, OK, this is just one thing, we're going to do this, and we're going to take away from the rest of the things that have gotten to this point. He named the three quarterbacks he already had, not Kirk, who was still Washington's until the new league year. He did say what would happen if they got it wrong. We picked the right guy that is going to help us continue to move forward. Let's move forward. If we don't do that, then I'll probably get fired. Less than two weeks later, Minnesota agreed to pay Kirk. Foles got the ring, and Kirk got the contract. The Jets offered about $90 million. Kirk treated it like a coupon, and Minnesota climbed from about $75 million to $84 million. That was the map from New Orleans, five years after he first saw it. I just watched my agent basically exercise what he had spoken about Joe Flacco after my rookie year. Did it with me, kind of called his shot, if you will." On his first night in Minnesota, with a helicopter following the car to dinner, GM Rick Spielman says he was on the phone wrapping up a trade for Kirk's new backup, with Kirk in the backseat. Even on night one, somebody was working on the backup plan. An NFL contract is mostly a press release, because the team can cut you and stop paying. Fully guaranteed means the cut doesn't matter and the check's still clear. I've always said like you deal in reality and you deal in risk. Add it all up and $339 million of his $341 million was fully guaranteed, an NFL record built over 11 straight seasons. The only part a team could ever have walked away from was $2.1 million, and all of it sat in that rookie deal from pick 102. Zimmer's defense was about to pay for it. Did Minnesota get what it paid for? Two years in, he went back to New Orleans, the city where he got the map, and won in overtime, 26-20. That was a hell of a win, fellas. It was the only playoff win of his career. He finished 1-3 as a starter, every game in January. The losses never touched the money. He took two years here and one year there, and kept showing up at the table. Rings get one in February. Kirk Cousins gets paid in March. His teammates put chains on him on the team plane, and on the Manning cast, he wore a Coles cash chain while he was on a $35 million contract. Dress rehearsal? Big Kirko wakes up dripping like this. I like it, Kirko. You like that? Minnesota was already hedging. In 2021, hours before the draft, Kirk was on a golf course when his offensive coordinator called. And I'm on like the 18th hole, walking up the fairway, and Clint Kubiak calls me, ROC. And he said, I just want to give you a heads up, like we may draft a quarterback tonight. I was like, okay. Minnesota took Kellen Mond the next night. Zimmer's reaction came out years later. When he picked Mond, I walked out of the room. I left the building. Zimmer's own prediction came true in January 2022, when the Vikings fired him and his GM on the same day. We're averaging 10 wins a year playing really good defense with some other quarterbacks who weren't as talented as Kirk. Then we paid Kirk a lot of money and ended up having to get rid of some guys on defense. Two months after the firing, Kirk signed for another $35 million, fully guaranteed. Then, at 35, he tore his Achilles, and Minnesota would reportedly guarantee only one more season. His next contract was the biggest of his life. Atlanta offered four years and $180 million instead, and Kirk explained why he took it. If I play at the level I expect to play, I can retire a Falcon. His agent was already joking about the next contract, the way he had in Minnesota. He tapped him on the shoulder and he said, All right, thanks so much, guys. We'll see you. And he goes, We'll see you in three years for the extension. It took six weeks for that plan to fall apart. At that same press conference, he had told reporters what the league had taught him. No. You're always aware that nothing's promised, nothing's guaranteed. Nothing's guaranteed, Kirk, buddy. On draft night, Atlanta held the eighth pick. With a quarterback it had just signed to a $180 million deal. And it took another quarterback, Michael Penix Jr. Kirk heard on the phone while he was driving back from a team event at the stadium. They called me and just said, hey, we're going to take a quarterback here at the pick. Minnesota had at least given him a heads up on a golf course. His agent texted NFL Network what Atlanta gave them. We got no heads up. Kirk had taken this call in high school and on the 18th hole. And this time, he said so. So this is more the norm than the exception. By December, he was benched, and he had one line ready. I didn't forget how to play quarterback. The panel shows were less forgiving. There's only one quarterback that I'm paying $100 million, and that's Patrick Mahomes. If he ain't getting no $100 million, I damn sure ain't giving Kirk Cousins no $100 million. That March, another $10 million locked in for the following year. For a backup. Because his name was still on the roster at 4 in the afternoon, and the contract said so. Owner Arthur Blank explained why a backup was worth it. Players get hurt on occasion, and it could be the quarterback. 13 years after Washington, Kirk was the spare tire again, only this one cost $27.5 million in salary alone. A year later, Atlanta released Kirk after paying him $90 million for two seasons. Getting rid of him still cost $35 million in dead cap, which is an expensive way to clear out a locker. Reddit summed up the whole Atlanta experience. Falcons paid Kirk a A ton of money to mentor their draft picks for half a season. Another fan needed seven words. Most expensive bridge QB of all time. Kirk was 37, he had been cut, and the phone rang anyway. Most people stopped reading at $172 million for a 37-year-old the Falcons had just released. But the same post said the real deal was one year for about $20 million. For 2026, the Raiders pay him $1.3 million and owe $10 million in March 2027. Atlanta covers the other $8.7 million. Two years on, Cam Newton still wasn't impressed. His stats don't match his contract. The rest of the takes turned in a hurry. One fan on Reddit saw the $1.3 million and got ideas. If he's willing to sign for peanuts, we could just go around collecting bargain bin QBs. It's a genius deal by the Raiders. He hit big in Washington. He hit big in Minnesota. Hell, he hit big in Atlanta. Nine days before the draft, Raiders GM John Spytek tried to explain what he had bought, starting with the nickname. Kirk Chains, is that what they call him? I can't remember. But, Kirk O. Chains, yeah, sorry Kirk, I screwed that up. Nearly nine years after Kirk, another front office fumbled his name, this time the nickname. Then he got to the job description. I think that helps everybody, especially the coaching staff, sleep a little better at night." That is one expensive sleep aid. Then the Raiders used the first pick on Fernando Mendoza. Somebody was already planning for life after Kirk. Again. The head coach in that building was Clint Kubiak, the same man who called him on the 18th hole. Kirk had already told him how this would go. I made this clear to Clint that the best player needs to play. If that's not me, I don't want to be out there. So, was Kirk a joke? Kirk had set the test himself years earlier. I certainly think that quarterbacks will always be evaluated based on not just September to December, but January and February. Fine. January and February it is. So divide each man's career money by his playoff wins. Brady made $9.1 million a win, and his 35 wins are more than 27 of the 32 franchises have. Kirk was at $341.5 million for one. That is nearly 38 times Brady's price. My read is simple. Kirk won. But I do think there are too many players, and really sometimes teams, that they aren't dealing in reality, and they aren't recognizing risk. He never needed anybody to believe in him. He needed one scared owner every March, and the league has never run short of those. So no, Kirk Cousins was never the joke. The joke was whoever kept signing the checks. The last check is $10 million, due in March 2027, fully guaranteed, and it comes from the Raiders. Over the cap already has him past Brady, and on Spotrac's count, this is the check that does it. The owner you would recognize is Tom Brady. The guy whose face is on the building owns a piece of the company writing that check. And the Raiders, well done, well played Tom Brady. Washington got his name wrong. Atlanta told him on draft night. Vegas's contract read $172 million and meant $20 million. All of them paid him anyway. Rings get one in February. Kirk Cousins gets paid in March. So which one would you take? Seven rings and $318 million? Or zero rings and $341 million?