Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images
Nothing went as expected or hoped on Sunday for the Falcons and their $180 million man, Kirk Cousins.
If you thought people were apoplectic over the ways in which the Atlanta Falcons handled their quarterback situation this offseason … well, it’s about to get a lot louder.
The team that went out and signed Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract with $100 million guaranteed and then selected Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 draft in the hope that Penix could be their guy a couple years down the road? Well, that’s the same team that put Cousins out on the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Atlanta’s regular-season opener when Cousins clearly hadn’t fully recovered from the Achilles tendon injury he suffered last October. .
The results were not what anybody expected – Cousins was overmatched against the Steelers, completing 16 of 26 passes for 155 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, a passer rating of 59.0, and a Passing EPA of -12.2 – the eighth-lowest in the NFL through Sunday night.
When I say that Cousins clearly wasn’t 100% healthy for this game, I don’t need an X-ray or an MRI to confirm it – the Falcons gave everybody the diagnosis by how they had Cousins set up schematically. Cousins has been one of the NFL’s best play-action and rollout quarterbacks in the league – he was certainly that in his salad days with the Minnesota Vikings – and his new team, led by offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, took away everything he did well.
Not one of Cousins’ 25 attempts had the benefit of play-action. On 24 of his 25 passing attempts, he stayed in the pocket. All 25 of those attempts came out of shotgun or pistol – not one passing attempt from under center. It was as if there was a label on QB1 that said, “DO NOT SCRAMBLE.”
Last season, per Sports Info Solutions, Cousins attempted 96 passes with a snap from under center, completing 67 for 661 yards, 383 air yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 102.8 – and that was in just eight games.
Cousins absolutely ripped the NFL to bits last season with play-action, completing 66 of 93 passes for 615 yards, 330 air yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 106.7.
And when throwing outside the pocket last season, Cousins completed 16 of 25 passes for 122 yards, 61 air yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 89.1. Not exactly Patrick Mahomes numbers, but something you might want to throw into the game plan at some point in time.
In this case, Robinson had to put his whole play sheet in service of a quarterback that could not move outside the pocket, and needed space from the line of scrimmage. The Falcons could not have made it more evident that Cousins was not ready for this.
Cousins’ analyses of his two interceptions said a lot, as well. The first pick came with 4:08 left in the first quarter, and Cousins threw a howler in the general direction of receiver Drake London, but between the coverage and the fact that Cousins was getting pressured up the middle, there was no way this was going to work.
“I was really trying to avoid the sack on the first one and throw it away,” Cousins said. I knew Drake was breaking in there. I did see color, but I was trying to basically put it out there, way out in front of him, but the safety was there and made a good play. In hindsight, I’ll have to go back and watch it to really give you a good answer, but either just throw it away lower or you take the sack, whatever it’s got to be to avoid the outcome there.”
Pick No. 2 came with 2:47 left in the game, and the Falcons down 15-10. Cousins had first-and-10 from the Pittsburgh 47-yard line, so there was real opportunity here. Cousins had a collapsing pocket courtesy of the Steelers’ dominant pass rush, and he didn’t move at all.
“Then the second one, just couldn’t get anything on the ball,” Cousins said. “That’s where, again, I’ll go back and watch it and be critical and say, hey, you know, maybe you eat it, or you progress or you dirt it, whatever you have to do to avoid the critical error of the interception.”
Well, maybe, but this was a case where Cousins had London on a quick comeback for the hot read, and it’s not as if the Falcons were in a situation where Cousins had to make the risky choice to perpetuate any hope of winning. 2:47 left, first-and-10, five points down, you take the profit and move on.
This was not a sustainable game plan for a quarterback. This was Jake and Elwood near the end of the Blues Brothers movie, hoping that they could get to the Cook County Assessor’s Office before the Bluesmobile fell apart.
Penix didn’t look like The Answer in his limited preseason snaps (there’s another issue), but at least he can move. This wasn’t really on Cousins as much as it was on the decision to have him start his first possible regular-season game with half the physical tools he needed for any chance at success.
Next Monday night, the Falcons face a Philadelphia Eagles defense that had six different defenders with at least two quarterback pressures in their opener against the Green Bay Packers. We’ll see through the week if anything comes out about Kick Cousins’ actual physical status … but whatever the doctors say, the Falcons have already told you that something isn’t quite right with their $180 million man.
