PHILADELPHIA — Kirk Cousins had a rough debut Sunday for the Falcons, but that hasn’t led Eagles coach Nick Sirianni to view the quarterback any differently.
Cousins went 16-for-26 passing for 155 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions in the Falcons’ 18-10 home loss to Pittsburgh. The team also didn’t use play-action or have Cousins operate from under center. He remained stagnant in the pocket.
Naturally, those developments invited speculation that Cousins isn’t 100% healthy after the torn Achilles that ended his 2023 season with the Vikings. The Falcons and Cousins have rejected that suggestion, though their offense will be under the microscope Monday night in Philadelphia.
Asked whether Cousins didn’t have his full mobility back, Sirianni talked around the question but praised the Falcons’ new quarterback.
“Kirk has been an unbelievable football player in this league for a long time,” Sirianni said Thursday. “A lot of respect for him. He’s a great football player. So we’re going to have to be ready. That’s not something you can control, if he’s feeling good one day and not feeling good the other day. We have to be ready for the player we know he is. He’s a heck of a player. We have to be ready for him because he can make teams look bad because of his talent.”
Despite his injury and his age (36), the Falcons gave Cousins a four-year, $180 million contract in free agency hoping he’d stabilize a position that had been disastrous for the franchise since it jettisoned Matt Ryan in March 2022. The Falcons became the betting favorites in the lackluster NFC South.
But Week 1 threw all of that into question. The Steelers have a mighty defense led by edge rusher T.J. Watt, but the Falcons’ offensive limitations were eye-opening. It also put the team in a precarious spot with the Eagles and Chiefs looming in prime time over the next two weeks.
Before tearing his Achilles, Cousins threw 18 touchdown passes to go with five interceptions last season, helping pull the Vikings out of an 0-3 hole to look like a wild-card contender. He was a Pro Bowler the previous two seasons, including a standout 2022 campaign in which Cousins had 29 touchdowns (and 14 interceptions) while leading the Vikings to a 13-4 record.
“He is a really accurate player, and he makes good decisions with the football,” Sirianni said. “I think that consistency that he has there has been noticed because he’s done it for such a long time. He had his team in the playoffs two years ago; he’s had some good teams. So again, his accuracy, his decision-making, he’s able to get the ball where it needs to go consistently. So I have a lot of respect for him, and I think his track record speaks for itself.”
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