Falcons Should Discover Kirk Cousins Commerce for Michael Penix Jr. to Thrive amid NFL Rumors

The Atlanta Falcons took a large step towards their future once they made first-round rookie Michael Penix Jr. their beginning quarterback late within the 2024 NFL season.

An much more crucial transfer ahead ought to come this offseason—as long as they’ll discover a taker for Kirk Cousins.

The veteran signal-caller flopped throughout his first season of a four-year, $180 million take care of Atlanta. Previous to his late-season demotion, he had practically matched his 18 landing passes with 16 interceptions whereas posting his worst quarterback score in a decade (88.6).

It seems that the Falcons have seen sufficient and are prepared to maneuver on, however provided that they’re in a position to sniff out a commerce companion.

Per NFL Community’s Cameron Wolfe, they “are usually not simply going to launch [Cousins]” and are “keen to carry him again as a backup” if they cannot discover a commerce.

It is value noting, after all, that taking this report at face worth could be doing Atlanta a favor.

Curiosity in Cousins across the league feels debatable at greatest, even with the idea that the Falcons must eat a giant chunk of his contract as a part of any change. Making this example even trickier, the 36-year-old holds a no-trade clause, which means Atlanta does not have full management of the scenario.

There was additionally a late December report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter noting that league executives are “absolutely anticipating” Atlanta to launch Cousins earlier than a $10 million roster bonus comes due on March 17.

When it comes to leverage, then, the Falcons have little to none. And so they in all probability know that, therefore their rumored consolation with the concept of him serving as a wildly high-priced clipboard-holder behind Penix.

That scenario already sounds uncomfortable, and it hasn’t even began but. Atlanta cannot acknowledge this publicly, however the franchise has to know Penix does not want that kind of distraction.

The Falcons have to take away Cousins from the equation and let Penix develop on his personal. Even bottom-dollar presents may show immensely useful if they assist additional the rookie’s development as an NFL starter. And if they cannot even discover low-ball presents, they need to rethink their stance on not releasing the veteran.

As a result of this transfer, like all of the others Atlanta will make for the foreseeable future, must be seen via the lens of the way it impacts Penix. He is both already its franchise quarterback or at the very least somebody well-deserving of a number of possibilities to show he might be that kind of participant.

“Realistically, the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel for us, regardless of how dangerous and poor we performed on protection or anyplace else, is the quarterback,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris told reporters. “… We’ll work out methods to repair the issues we received to get carried out. However Michael Penix is actually excellent. He is actually one of many guys that is going to play on this league and completely dominate for so long as we enable him.”

Penix, the 2023 Heisman Trophy runner-up and final yr’s No. 8 choose, confirmed loads of promise throughout his late-season audition. He led the Falcons to victory in his first begin, then tallied 535 passing yards, three passing touchdowns and a dashing rating over his remaining two outings. Atlanta, which averaged 22.9 factors on the season, put up 96 factors in these three contests.

With the quantity of draft capital the Falcons have invested in playmakers—earlier than the Penix choose, they spent top-10 choices on tight finish Kyle Pitts (No. 4 in 2021), broad receiver Drake London (No. 8 in 2022) and working again Bijan Robinson (No. 8 in 2023)—the long run for this offense, and hopefully the crew general, needs to be shiny.

It may be if Atlanta absolutely commits to Penix’s growth, which implies discovering a means out of the Cousins experiment gone awry.