To say that Kirk Cousins’ first season with the Atlanta Falcons was met with some challenges would be a HUGE understatement. First, Cousins was given the huge contract with $100 million guaranteed, pretty good thing for him, and made the Falcons the talk of the NFL headed into the 2024 season. Then the Falcons would draft quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the 8th overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, which Cousins says blindsided him. Most everyone in the media and those associated with the team were just as surprised by this move, as that seemed like a strange move after guaranteeing Cousins so much money. Then the season starts, and the Falcons looked pretty promising, getting out to a 6-3 start after their first nine games.
Then came the week 10 Saints game. In the 2nd quarter of the Saints game, Cousins would take a pretty big shot to his throwing shoulder, but he would stay in the game.
Cousins would continue as the Falcons quarterback even though in the next few games something seemed off with his physical capability. Michael Penix Jr.
would end up starting the last three games of the season, and the Falcons would finish 8-9 while missing the playoffs. Cousins would later go on to admit that the shoulder was significantly injured during the Saints game, but he elected to play anyway. Falcons fans and media were taken aback by this news, and many thought that the team would part ways with Cousins before the 2025 season started.
This, as of yet, has not happened. In fact, the Falcons doubled-down on their stance to keep Cousins around as the backup quarterback. Now, season 2 of the Netflix docu-series “Quarterback”, which Cousins is starring in, has been released, and all of the drama with the draft and injury has re-surfaced, largely because we find out how bad the injury was. While a lot of NFL players will not openly admit being hurt out of fear for losing their job, he was playing so bad that SOMEONE should have noticed, which makes the team look very bad. At this point, there is no way to go back to Cousins as the Falcons starting quarterback according to Andy Bunker and Randy McMichael, and the team should be increasing their efforts to trade him before an unfortunate injury situation crops up.