Cousins Benched

StickierBuns wrote:
So never say never when it comes to trying to win games in the NFL. Because they are in the 'playoff hunt', that's exactly why Morris is doing it, to salvage the season because Cousins is washed. They won't be going to back to Kirk. What a shit show contract for Atlanta. Minnesota dodged the proverbial bullet. Benched in the first season of a 4 year, $180 million deal......epic failure by Cousins and the Atlanta GM. Epic. Kirko is not an adaptable QB, you must have everything lined up perfectly for him. And now with diminishing skills and him at an all time low in confidence (he questioned himself this week as he doesn't know why he's sucking), who would want him? If they cut him, it'll just be another mistake for another team. He threw over 99% of the time from the pocket, lol. I can't begin to tell you how limiting that is for a modern offense.

I guess I don’t see this as an “epic” failure either by Cousins or by the GM.  It’s not even the biggest front office failure in the league.  His contract is effectively 2 years, $100M at this point.  The QB is most important position in all of sports, and you can’t just go to the store and get an elite QB.  Them getting Cousins was always going to be a risk, but it was a risk worth taking.  There’s such a small sample size of QBs getting achilles injuries that no one could really predict how it would turn out.  The biggest problem with taking Cousins isn’t how he’s performing now, as that was a known risk, it’s his low upside.  Peak Cousins isn’t a guy that’s taking your middle of the road team to the SB.  I think them drafting Penix was a very strong move.  Them bringing in Cousins was a medium overpay for a mid-tier QB.  They can hold onto him for another year and have an expensive backup while their QB room costs exactly the same as they were planning for, or they can trade him and have a moderate dead cap hit.  I don’t think Cousins just got dumb, more that the stackup of limitations for him just got too high.  Maybe another offseason of healing changes his outlook, maybe not.  Maybe he retires.

Jets firing their only good coach, to try and save their season, much worse decision.
Half the garbage teams, like the Giants, opting to not draft a QB, much worse decisions.
The Browns with Deshaun Watson, not really a this year decision, but one that is massively more epic than this one by the Falcons.
The whole Bears situation, much worse decisions in how they handled their rookie QB, although it might turn out better for them if they fix their coaching staff, as they have a legit.
I don’t even think it’s worse than the Saints opting to not rebuild, and doubling down around Derek Carr, although that’s the closest one.  The Saints are in legit cap hell for multiple years.  The Falcons are going to have one bad cap year, and they already have their QB of the future.  If Cousins looks like he healed a bit over the offseason, some team will trade for him and make the cap burden much more tolerable.

Cousins problem is between his ears. You know the Vikings never put a backup QB behind Cousins that would challenge him for a reason. That reason is playing out in Atlanta…

View from Atlanta: Benching Cousins was the right move

ATLANTA — Falcons coach Raheem Morris has fielded questions about benching Kirk Cousins for weeks. Each time, Morris confirmed that Cousins was the starter. Morris declined to do that soon after the Falcons got back from Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Two hours later, Morris announced that rookie Michael Penix Jr. would replace Cousins as the starter for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants and “moving forward.”

“This was a football decision and we are fully focused on preparing the team for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants,” Morris said in a statement released by the team Tuesday evening.

It’s a bold move by Morris. It’s also the right one. Morris has been widely praised for his enthusiasm and upbeat attitude. The quarterback crisis was a test of how he’d handle a potentially volatile situation. Morris made the correct, tough call to bench his 13th-year veteran quarterback for a rookie.

The decision comes with risks. The Falcons will chase a playoff spot with an untested quarterback. Penix has yet to play a meaningful snap in the NFL. Morris’ decision surely is a blow to Cousins’ flagging confidence. His contract guarantees him $100 million, and now he’s not even the starter after 14 games.

But the potential downside of not making this move now were greater. The Falcons (7-7) are one game behind the Bucs in the NFC South with three to play and hold the tiebreaker advantage. They weren’t going to make the playoffs with Cousins holding back the offense. The Falcons snapped a four-game losing streak with the 15-9 victory at Vegas, but Cousins was the weak link again.

The running backs, defense and special teams gave Cousins optimal chances that he couldn’t convert. That made five consecutive subpar performances for Cousins. He’s thrown one touchdown and nine interceptions over the past five weeks. On Tuesday, Morris acknowledged what everyone could see: Cousins had lost confidence.

The Falcons drafted Penix No. 8 overall this year to be the eventual successor to Cousins. That vision didn’t include Penix playing this season. If all went well, Penix would start two years from now at the earliest. But all is not well with Cousins. He’s struggling and, unlike with his uneven play early in the season, the issues appear to be mental more than physical.

Penix will learn on the job. He played only a handful of snaps in one exhibition game and had two mop-up assignments in official games. I believe Morris should have done more to get Penix ready. He had a plan that didn’t involve Penix starting as a rookie, but contingencies always are needed in the NFL.

The timing is right to give Penix his first start. Doing it against the Chargers or Vikings would have been unfair. Both teams are elite on defense. The Raiders have a bad defense, but a debut start on the road for Penix would be tricky. Plus, that game was a final chance to see if Cousins could regain his confidence.

It didn’t happen. Now, Penix will start against the Giants (2-12). Penix’s play at Washington made him a top draft prospect. But the Falcons made a mistake by acquiring him when they still had Cousins. There was no way they could get full value out of both players. That’s still a problem even with Penix unexpectedly starting as a rookie.

Cousins is guaranteed $27.5 million in base salary next year. It’s untenable to pay that much to a backup. But the Falcons part ways with Cousins they’d take a “dead money” charge on their salary cap that would make it very difficult to improve the roster. The Falcons just went through that when they traded Matt Ryan, followed by two losing seasons with marginal-or-worse quarterbacks.

Cousins was supposed to help the Falcons finally climb out of that hole. But they started 1-2 as Cousins looked like who he was: a 36-year-old less than a year removed from Achilles surgery. But the Falcons recovered as Cousins rediscovered his form. They were 6-3, two games ahead of the Bucs, and Cousins was among the favorites to win NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

Then came the decline of the past five games. Cousins seemed less sure in the pocket. His decisions were slow, and his passes were late. The turnovers piled up. Cousins appeared dejected when facing questions after games. He didn’t have the answers as the Falcons lost four games in a row and fell behind the Bucs in the South.

The Falcons won at Las Vegas on Monday despite the play of Cousins. Finally, Morris had seen enough. Making the switch from Cousins to Penix is a bold move. It’s also the right one.

Source: Pioneer Press

comet52 wrote:
May be a case of you don't see the edge of the cliff coming until you fall off of it.

But have to wonder if the achilles got aggravated somehow.  It's clear he is not planting and throwing like he was earlier this year.  Something is physically wrong.

Thing is...  He wasn't planting and throwing off his back foot earlier in the year.  Lots of game clips showing him having this weird lift off to the side with his back foot on his follow thru.  He is moving in the pocket less than he ever has (I think I saw only Ben Roethlisberger has moved less and that was at the end of his career) and he has had a hard time all season getting out to complete handoffs on stretch runs off tackle.  It's why the Falcons have predominantly run their offense out of the pistol all season instead of having him under center.

The Achilles has been and still is an issue.  I feel like it's a mental thing for him, more than a physical one.  If you don't trust it to plant and throw or push off to sprint out for a handoff, this is what you get.

I don’t really know, but I imagine that he started the season at 75% health and over the course of the season he’s dwindled down to like 60% health. He struggles to gain enough depth to hand the ball off. He can’t push off the leg to throw properly, so he’s not getting the zip he used to get when he had proper throwing mechanics. I’ve heard Falcons fans say that the offense is super predictable and it’s obvious based on personnel package if they’re running or passing. I think over time, the league just wised up to what he physically can’t do and he can’t punish them for what they’re doing.

Hopefully, with another offseason of healing, he’ll be able to perform more normally. Maybe not prime Kirk, but at least able to move around the pocket, step into throws or to get a first down with his legs if it’s wide open. I imagine if he’s still this limited come training camp to where they can’t run a semi-normal offense, he’ll either gracefully accept his role as an expensive backup or retire. I can’t imagine he’s been enjoying football this past year, and if can’t heal his way into a better situation, probably have to accept his fate.

Cousins I don’t think has as of good of supporting cast at Atlanta.

Schefter reporting that league executives are expecting the Falcons to release Cousins before his roster bonus is due in March...

Oh boy...

MAD GAINZ wrote:
Schefter reporting that league executives are expecting the Falcons to release Cousins before his roster bonus is due in March...

Oh boy...

Wow, how much has changed in one year. I thought they might be able get something for him, but I guess that contract prevents that. If he just weren't so goddamn greedy, he could be running this show in Minnesota. He'd probably have to go on food stamps, but Ramen can be good occasionally.

MAD GAINZ wrote:
Schefter reporting that league executives are expecting the Falcons to release Cousins before his roster bonus is due in March... Oh boy...

 I think that will come to fruition (or not) based on what Penix shows the next 21 days. 

I am still amazed at how quickly this went south. Never rooted for the guy to fail down there.

Norse wrote:

Cousins I don’t think has as of good of supporting cast at Atlanta.

It was never about the supporting cast with Kirk, it was always about the money.  Brady took less in New England to give the team a chance to add players around him but all Kirk has is $ signs in his eyes.

Spotrac@spotrac
One more Kirk Cousins note:

The fully guaranteed $27.5M salary owed by the #Falcons for 2025 contains offset language. An outright release by Atlanta makes it highly likely that his next team will only need to pay at or near a minimum $1.255M salary.

Greylock wrote:

It was never about the supporting cast with Kirk, it was always about the money.  Brady took less in New England to give the team a chance to add players around him but all Kirk has is $ signs in his eyes.

As has been pointed out endlessly: Tom had a multimillionaire model wife (on the heels of a similarly rich actress girlfriend) and thus still had piles of money rolling into his household.

For being all "about the money", Kirk was lauded for his work ethic, leadership and overall teammate qualities his whole time in purple...while also being among the most hit/sacked QBs behind the junk that was our IOL. Ingram and Bradbury were at their worst while he was still producing well enough to be our 3rd rated QB of all time.

He could've sought more money behind a safer line, without a hateful coach (which he endured for 4 years), and he let the team stretch and mutate his contracts, constantly, to make other signings possible.

I reject that whole "all about the money" tripe.

MaroonBells wrote:
Spotrac@spotrac One more Kirk Cousins note:

The fully guaranteed $27.5M salary owed by the #Falcons for 2025 contains offset language. An outright release by Atlanta makes it highly likely that his next team will only need to pay at or near a minimum $1.255M salary.

So this reminds me of the Russell Wilson scenario, where he signed with the Steelers for the league minimum while getting his salary paid for by the Broncos.  The word in Denver was that he was washed up, a shadow of his former self in Seattle.  Yet they have qualified for the playoffs.

Zanary wrote:

As has been pointed out endlessly: Tom had a multimillionaire model wife (on the heels of a similarly rich actress girlfriend) and thus still had piles of money rolling into his household.

For being all "about the money", Kirk was lauded for his work ethic, leadership and overall teammate qualities his whole time in purple...while also being among the most hit/sacked QBs behind the junk that was our IOL. Ingram and Bradbury were at their worst while he was still producing well enough to be our 3rd rated QB of all time.

He could've sought more money behind a safer line, without a hateful coach (which he endured for 4 years), and he let the team stretch and mutate his contracts, constantly, to make other signings possible.

I reject that whole "all about the money" tripe.

Fans want to make things binary, one/zero, on/off, black and white...I don't think it's that simple looking back at the Kirko chapters in MN. 

I think the org fell short in some very key ways and I think Kirk could have done more cap wise to help the franchise get over the hump. 

Terrible match with Zimsu in retrospect. 

Shades of grey....

Zanary wrote:

As has been pointed out endlessly: Tom had a multimillionaire model wife (on the heels of a similarly rich actress girlfriend) and thus still had piles of money rolling into his household.

For being all "about the money", Kirk was lauded for his work ethic, leadership and overall teammate qualities his whole time in purple...while also being among the most hit/sacked QBs behind the junk that was our IOL. Ingram and Bradbury were at their worst while he was still producing well enough to be our 3rd rated QB of all time.

He could've sought more money behind a safer line, without a hateful coach (which he endured for 4 years), and he let the team stretch and mutate his contracts, constantly, to make other signings possible.

I reject that whole "all about the money" tripe.

Believe what you want about Kirk but he could have done things cap wise to help the Vikings and he didn't.  It was and always will be about the money for Kirk.

Greylock wrote:

Believe what you want about Kirk but he could have done things cap wise to help the Vikings and he didn't.  It was and always will be about the money for Kirk.

I'm citing evidence, so unless you've stolen his diaries or something...it's kinda hard to dispute so many of his teammates celebrating him and openly wanting him back during last offseason.

No one just gets pummeled, for years, just for the money, when that same money could have been had elsewhere behind better blocking.

Zanary wrote:

I'm citing evidence, so unless you've stolen his diaries or something...it's kinda hard to dispute so many of his teammates celebrating him and openly wanting him back during last offseason.

No one just gets pummeled, for years, just for the money, when that same money could have been had elsewhere behind better blocking.

Fuck your evidence, you have no fucking clue how his teammates felt about Kirk unless you personally know them and they disclosed their feeling about them.  Kirk is and always was about the money and that will never change.

UGreylock wrote:

Fuck your evidence, you have no fucking clue how his teammates felt about Kirk unless you personally know them and they disclosed their feeling about them.  Kirk is and always was about the money and that will never change.

Agree totally that he didn’t do right by the Vikings with his prioritization of his paycheck above all else.   I don’t get the feeling that anybody with the Vikes misses him greatly.

StickierBuns wrote:
Honestly, the fast fall is almost shocking: not even through the first year of a mega contract, benched for a rookie and he'll be cut before March. Said he's going to take a month off from football after the season is over and see where his head's at. He's at a crisis of confidence.

I felt the same, watching that was like a train wreck and it happened in a blink. Unless you were a Falcons fan. I dont know if we dodged a bullet as some are saying, cause I am not convinced he would have went off the rails in MN.

Well Penix didn't do much but he mostly protected the football and they won by 30 so I'm going to say Falcons fans are happy with the switch.

Kirk Falcons jerseys will cost about $8 soon.