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Ryan McFadden
Multiple Authors
HENDERSON, Nev. — The Las Vegas Raiders agreed to terms with Kirk Cousins on Thursday, two days after new coach Klint Kubiak said he wanted to add another veteran quarterback to the roster.
Cousins’ agent announced the deal, which will pay the four-time Pro Bowler $20 million in guaranteed money in 2026, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It will mark the 11th consecutive season that Cousins’ contract will be fully guaranteed.
The deal also includes a club option for two years at $80 million and could be worth up to $172 million over five years, the source told Schefter, although only the $20 million this year is fully guaranteed.
Cousins, 37, will join a Raiders team that is widely expected to select former Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick in the NFL draft later this month.
But Kubiak and general manager John Spytek, who were among those in attendance Wednesday to scout Mendoza at Indiana’s pro day, have said on multiple occasions that they prefer not to start a young quarterback right away this season.
“Ideally, you don’t want him to start day one,” Kubiak said Tuesday at the annual league meeting. “You’d love him to be able to learn behind somebody. That’s in a perfect world. It doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes they have to play from day one, and it’s our job as a coach to get them ready to go.
“I think it does help the player, though, if they can sit behind a mature adult and watch how they run the show.”
During a conversation earlier this year with ESPN’s Kevin Clark, Cousins highlighted the importance for teams to wait before starting a rookie quarterback.
“There was a time when Aaron Rodgers got drafted and sat for three years. … I also think there was a time coaches stuck around and a quarterback learned a system and played in that system for most of his career,” Cousins told Clark during an appearance on the “This is Football” podcast. “The turnover as both coaches and teammates makes it really hard, because it’s such a team game. That position requires continuity that you just don’t have anymore.”
The Raiders have that continuity in place. Outside of Cousins, offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko and assistant head coach Mike McCoy have worked with Kubiak before and have a strong understanding of his expectations for the offense and the quarterback position.
Thursday’s deal comes less than a month after Cousins was released by the Atlanta Falcons, who parted ways with the quarterback two years after signing him to a four-year, $180 million contract.
The Falcons will pay Cousins $8.7 million in 2026 while the Raiders will pay another $1.3 million, according to Schefter. Las Vegas also agreed to pay Cousins a fully guaranteed $10 million roster bonus on the third day of the 2027 new league year.
Before adding Cousins, Aidan O’Connell was the only quarterback on Las Vegas’ roster after the team traded Geno Smith to the New York Jets last month. The move reunites Cousins with Kubiak, who was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for three seasons with the Minnesota Vikings (2019-21).
During that stretch with Kubiak in Minnesota, Cousins passed for 12,089 yards, 94 touchdowns and 26 interceptions, and he had a completion rate of 67.6%. Kubiak was the offensive coordinator in 2021 when Cousins was named to the Pro Bowl after throwing for 4,221 yards and 33 touchdowns with a passer rating of 103.1 and a completion rate of 66.3%.
Cousins had an up-and-down two years in Atlanta. The Falcons drafted quarterback Michael Penix Jr. just six weeks after signing Cousins — a move that took him by surprise.
Coming off a torn Achilles with the Vikings in 2023, Cousins led the Falcons to a 6-3 start in 2024 before an arm injury hampered his performance. He went on a stretch of five games with nine interceptions before the Falcons benched him in Week 16, committing to Penix as the quarterback of the present and future.
Cousins returned healthy in 2025, but the Falcons had already made up their minds that Penix was their quarterback. But Penix tore his left ACL in Week 11, and Cousins started the rest of the way, including a four-game winning streak to close the season.
Cousins completed 61.7% of his passes for 1,721 yards with 10 touchdowns and five interceptions last season. His 47.6 QBR tied him at 22nd in the league with Bryce Young.
A fourth-round pick by Washington in the 2012 draft, Cousins has passed for 44,700 yards with 298 touchdowns and 131 interceptions in 14 seasons in the NFL.
ESPN’s Marc Raimondi contributed to this report.
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