Kirk Cousins on the Falcons pick, the Michael Penix Jr. pick and more
Kirk Cousins doesn’t believe Minnesota would have drafted a quarterback this year if he had re-signed with the Vikings. The fact that the Atlanta Falcons did so shortly after he signed there only confirmed what the veteran quarterback already knew about the NFL, he said. The AthleticsNFL podcast from ‘s “Ship City.”
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell’s “words were, ‘Hey, if we sign you back, I think it’s very unlikely we’ll draft anybody.’ Or something like that,” Cousins said during an appearance with Dianna Russini and Chase Daniel. “But I also know that things change in this league.”
Cousins learned that lesson again after signing a four-year, $180 million contract with the Falcons. Forty-three days later, Atlanta used the eighth pick to select quarterback Michael Penix Jr. from the University of Washington.
“I’ve learned that these things work themselves out,” Cousins said. “If you can play, you’ve always got a shot somewhere, and if the other guy can play, he’s always got a shot somewhere. There seems to be a demand for quarterbacks.”
Kirk Cousins | Scoop City | July 30
Kevin O’Connell told Kirk Cousins before the draft, “If we re-sign you, it’s highly unlikely we’ll draft another quarterback.” They still only offered him a one-year deal
He knows things can change in the NFL, but that doesn’t make it any easier. photo.twitter.com/meWZvJ7Mmb
—Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) July 29, 2024
Cousins stressed that he feels the Vikings, the team he played for the previous six seasons, treated him well during contract negotiations.
“The bottom line is Minnesota was great during the process,” he said. “They were honest.”
But he believed that if he had a future with the Vikings, it would be on a series of one-year contracts as they attempted to find their quarterback of the future.
Meanwhile, the Falcons gave Cousins, who will be 36 when the season starts, the largest total-value free-agency contract in NFL history, guaranteeing him $90 million over the first two years of the deal.
“I felt like I had a great thing going with Minnesota, so it was a really special opportunity to not go with Minnesota, and that’s really what Atlanta offered when I looked at the roster and what we would have here on the field and off the field,” Cousins said. “Certainly a big change, but I feel good about where we ended up.”
Cousins and his wife Julie were surprised when the Falcons drafted Penix. Still, the situation felt familiar, as Washington drafted him in 2012, the same year the team drafted Robert Griffin III. Cousins arrived at Michigan State the same year as Nick Foles.
“You’ve got to earn everything,” Cousins said. “You’ve just got to go out there and play the best you can and believe that if you play well at the quarterback position, there’s always a team or a market that you can continue to play for.”
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Cousins also played a word association game with the names of his current and former coaches, calling Atlanta’s Raheem Morris “positive” and drawing a comparison between Morris and former Dallas head coach Jimmy Johnson.
The circumstances under which Cousins and Penix came together do not appear to have caused any friction between the two at Atlanta’s training camp.
“He’s awesome,” Penix said of Cousins last week. “He’s so smart. I just keep learning from him and watching what he does day in and day out and how he carries himself and how he runs the offense. I make sure I absorb that.”
The Falcons drafting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (left) made for an awkward moment for Kirk Cousins, but all parties are saying the right things during training camp. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
The Falcons players stay in four-person apartments behind the team’s practice facility for training camp, with Cousins and Penix sharing a suite with third-string quarterback Taylor Heinicke and tight end Kyle Pitts. There’s not much bonding with the quarterbacks in that room, Pitts joked, because Cousins and Penix go to bed at 9:30 p.m. Penix did, however, bring a container of Cousins’ favorite snack, trail mix, on the first day of training camp.
The Falcons expect Cousins to play every practice rep with the No. 1 offense this preseason, as long as his surgically repaired Achilles cooperates. Cousins has lobbied to play in at least one preseason game, but he doesn’t expect that to happen.
“I think that question fell on deaf ears,” Cousins said. “Raheem’s model is, ‘You don’t play.’ I think seeing real bullets and playing is helpful, but I also understand the logic of not doing it. Everything we do is calculated, and it will be.”
Penix has split his time thus far between working on a secondary practice field with young Atlanta players and prospects from the fringe roster and taking 11-on-11 snaps with the second- and third-team offenses against the No. 1 defense. Last week, he showed off the arm talent that first attracted the Falcons to him, throwing a beautiful back-shoulder pass to Rondale Moore for a first down and then hitting Moore in the hands with a pass that flew 55 yards in the air and landed perfectly, only to be dropped. His unit also had several operational problems, however, recording two sacks, botching a quarterback-center exchange and committing a pre-snap penalty.
That same day, Cousins went 15-for-16 with the first-team offense, including a 50-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud. The relationship between Cousins and Morris also seems fine. After Cousins’ touchdown, he ran up to the head coach and initiated a leaping hip bump.
“I walked up to Kirk with a ‘wow’ look on my face and he gave me a hip bump,” Morris said. “I’d done legs before so I was a little weak. I just felt his energy the whole time. It was genuine enthusiasm. He’s feeling good. He’s had a really good summer. Obviously we’ve talked about him all off-season and what he was. It was really fun to watch.”
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Former Carolina Panthers wide receiver and current NFL Network commentator Steve Smith Sr. attended the Falcons’ practice on Saturday and said he was surprised “that so many people are upset about the Falcons signing Michael Penix.”
“That’s how it used to be,” Smith said. “Back in the day, you drafted the next guy once you had your guy.”
According to Smith, Cousins is a definite improvement for the Falcons at the quarterback position.
“You want someone who’s efficient and knows how to do his job,” Smith said. “I’ve always admired Kirk. I think he’s efficient. I think he knows what he’s doing. He knows where to go with the ball.”
The Falcons’ management also believes Cousins is an improvement, and a big one at that, although they wouldn’t say exactly that.
“He’s an operator and it’s quick in the head,” Falcons assistant general manager Kyle Smith said Sunday. “We talk a lot about twitch athletically. He’s got twitch in his brain. When it comes to the game, it’s pretty natural to him. Accurate passer. All the things you like. This is his team and we’re excited about him.”
When the Falcons signed Cousins in March, they didn’t know they would draft a quarterback the following month, but they never ruled out the option, Smith said in April.
“We have always been aggressive in our search for the heir to the throne,” he said after the draft version.
The Falcons went into the draft thinking they would pick six quarterbacks in the first round and select four of them before picking No. 8, Smith said. Instead, only three quarterbacks — Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye — were off the board when it was Atlanta’s turn.
“We are looking at a player who we think can win. That “Man,” Smith said.
The Falcons’ decision to move quarterback wasn’t any more complicated than that, general manager Terry Fontenot stressed.
“If (Penix) stays for four or five years, that’s a big deal because we’re doing so well at that position,” Fontenot said. “It’s as simple as, if you see a player at that position that you believe in, you’ve got to take him. Kirk Cousins is our quarterback. We’re very excited about Kirk and this team. Adding Michael Penix makes us think about the future.
“If you had told me in January who our quarterback was going to be… that we would have Kirk Cousins now and Michael Penix in the future, I would have told you it was a pipe dream.”
(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
