{"id":587269,"date":"2026-04-16T06:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/587269\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:53:11","slug":"inside-the-kirk-cousins-deal-with-the-raiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/587269\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Kirk Cousins deal with the Raiders"},"content":{"rendered":"

The initial reporting regarding the new Kirk Cousins contract with the Raiders was confusing, to say the least. Clarity has finally arrived.<\/p>\n

It was described as a clear-as-mud \u201cfive-year, $172 million deal<\/a> . . . that in reality is a one-year, fully-guaranteed $20 million deal that also contains a club option for two years at $80M.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the full breakdown, per a source with knowledge of the terms:<\/p>\n

1. 2026 base salary: $1.3 million, fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n

2. 2027 offseason roster bonus: $10 million, fully guaranteed and not subject to offset.<\/p>\n

3. 2027 base salary: $1.345 million, not guaranteed at signing but fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2027 league year.<\/p>\n

4. 2028 base salary: $78.655 million, not guaranteed at signing but fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2027 league year.<\/p>\n

5. 2029 base salary: $40 million.<\/p>\n

6. 2030 base salary: $40 million.<\/p>\n

The contract, if terminated before the fifth day of the 2027 league year, pays $11.3 million fully guaranteed for one season. The $1.3 million salary for 2026 leaves the Falcons on the hook for $8.7 million, since Cousins had a $10 million fully guaranteed roster bonus with offset for 2026. <\/p>\n

The end result for Cousins will be $20 million for 2026, with the Raiders paying $11.3 million of it. Next year, if he\u2019s cut, he\u2019ll keep everything he gets from another team.<\/p>\n

If the Raiders, for whatever reason, decide to keep Cousins beyond the 2026 season, he\u2019ll make $91.3 million from the Raiders for three seasons, plus the $8.7 million from the Falcons. That equates to $100 million over three years.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely the Raiders will retain Cousins beyond 2026. If, for some reason, they decide to do so, the three-year investment isn\u2019t ridiculous. It works out to an average of $30.43 million per year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The initial reporting regarding the new Kirk Cousins contract with the Raiders was confusing, to say the least.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-587269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}