Key Takeaways
- The Las Vegas Raiders structured Kirk Cousins’ contract to pay only $1.3 million against the 2026 salary cap while Cousins still collects $20 million total
- Thanks to a loophole exploiting Atlanta’s offset language, the Falcons are on the hook for $8.7 million of Cousins’ 2026 pay
- Reporters expect the NFL to close this loophole at the next owners’ vote — Albert Breer and Mike Florio both flagged it
- The move is widely seen as a Tom Brady-era power play from John Spytek and the front office
The Raiders’ Cap Wizardry
The Las Vegas Raiders just pulled off a contract move so sneaky it might get the NFL rulebook rewritten.
When the Raiders signed Kirk Cousins, the headline number was enormous — $100 million over three years, $20 million guaranteed in 2026. But the actual cap hit tells a wildly different story. Las Vegas is on the hook for just $1.3 million against the 2026 salary cap. One point three. For a four-time Pro Bowl quarterback.
How the Raiders Exploited the Offset Loophole
Cousins’ former team, the Atlanta Falcons, owed him $10 million guaranteed for 2026 with offset language built into his previous deal. That offset language means the Falcons have to cover any difference that gets Cousins to $10 million for the year — whether he’s on their roster or not. The Raiders, aware of this, structured their offer at league minimum for a veteran starter. So instead of Las Vegas paying $10+ million, Atlanta pays $8.7 million of Cousins’ 2026 earnings. The Raiders cover the remaining gap to hit his $20 million total, but only on paper.
Effectively: Cousins gets $20 million. The Raiders write $11.3 million. Atlanta writes $8.7 million. And the cap gymnastics save Las Vegas roughly $8.7 million in 2026 cap space they can use to add more talent.
Why Kirk Cousins Agreed to This Structure
Because the Raiders also guaranteed him $10 million on the third day of the 2027 league year with no offset language. That means a year from now, Las Vegas pays him $10 million cash — unless they trade him. Cousins won’t care about the 2027 cap situation in Vegas because he almost certainly won’t be there. He’s collecting his $20 million now, getting his bag a year early with no strings, and leaving Atlanta holding the bag.
Media Reaction and NFL Response
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio was among the first to call it out, calling the loophole “too easy, too convenient, too obvious” and saying “it’s amazing the loophole even exists.”
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer raised an even bigger flag: expect the NFL to close it.
“I’ll be interested to see if owners look to close the opening that Kirk Cousins and his people found here to get him the extra $10 million for 2027. Lots of teams have policies on including offsets. Cousins is basically circumventing that to double dip.”
Breer noted this kind of structure didn’t happen with Tua Tagovailoa and the Falcons, nor Kyler Murray and the Vikings this offseason. If teams had seen what Las Vegas was capable of doing prior, they might have structured their deals the same way.
Both Florio and Breer are half in awe, half skeptical. And if the NFL was ever going to change a rule, it would be after the Raiders figured out how to skrt their way around it.
The Tom Brady Factor
The timing may not be coincidental either — the Annual League Meeting wrapped earlier this week, and it’s possible the Raiders got this deal done after the other veteran quarterback dominoes had fallen so it couldn’t be discussed in that forum.
Tom Brady is a minority owner. John Spytek is running football operations. And financial wizard Tom Delaney apparently has a gift for cap gymnastics that borders on sorcery.
Walk the Plank
The anchors are up, the pleasantries are over, and it is time to see who stays afloat.
Here’s the part that should have Raider Nation scratching their heads: this exact same contract structure happened with Russell Wilson in 2024. When Wilson signed with Pittsburgh for veteran minimum, Denver paid the bulk of his $39 million salary — $37.79 million of it came from the Broncos’ pocket, not the Steelers’. Nobody called it a loophole worth closing then. Nobody wrote op-eds demanding the NFL step in. Nobody in league circles batted an eye.
Now the Raiders do the exact same thing — structure a deal where a team on the hook for guaranteed money covers the gap — and all of a sudden it’s “too easy, too convenient, too obvious.” All of a sudden Albert Breer is writing about rule changes. All of a sudden Mike Florio is calling for the league to close the opening.
Funny how that works.
When a team like Denver does it, it’s just football. When the Raiders do it, it’s a crisis that threatens the integrity of the salary cap system. That’s not consistency — that’s picking favorites. The league has had two years to address this “loophole” since Wilson’s deal went down. They didn’t. Now that a team in Vegas with Tom Brady’s fingerprints all over the front office finds the same trick, suddenly there’s urgency?
If the NFL wanted to close this, they could have closed it after Wilson. They didn’t. So when the owners vote and this thing gets ratified anyway, Raider Nation should watch closely — because the teams who benefited from this structure the first time around aren’t the ones getting singled out. It’s the Raiders, all over again.
That’s not a loophole. That’s a target. And the only answer is to keep winning anyway.
