Happy “The Falcons Have More Cap Space Day” to all who celebrate. As of today, June 1, the Falcons have an additional $2.1 million in 2026 cap space and $45 million in 2027 cap space owing to their release of quarterback Kirk Cousins back in March. That team saved some money earlier this spring with a restructure of Cousins’ deal, and now the rest of the savings will hit the books.
The Falcons currently have $19.3 million in cap space, per Over the Cap, and are slated to have $125 million next year.
A significant chunk of that money will be taken up by new deals for Bijan Robinson and Drake London, I’d suspect, but the team will have plenty of resources with which to attack the 2027 offseason.
While the Cousins-Falcons era was a disappointment—the team went 14-12 in his starts, but Cousins threw just 28 touchdowns against 21 interceptions in 24 games and fumbled 16 times—it ended more gracefully than you would have thought possible. Cousins and the Falcons agreed to the restructure, Atlanta won’t be carrying his cap burden very heavily or very far, and Cousins landed on his feet with the Raiders as their (short-term, given the presence of top pick Fernando Mendoza) starting quarterback. Atlanta replaced Cousins with Tua Tagovailoa, who cost them virtually nothing thanks to Miami picking up the bill on his contract, similar to the way the Raiders paid little for Cousins given that the Falcons have the bulk of his deal on the books in 2026.
The important thing, then, is that both sides have effectively moved on. The money the Falcons just saved may help them add a couple of useful pieces in 2026, and it will certainly help them improve the team significantly in 2027.
