The Falcons needed a quarterback so badly they flouted NFL regulations to get one. They paid him $180 million. (Though only – only! – $100M is guaranteed.) He started 14 games. He might not start another, at least not for this club.
I was here when Dan Henning benched Steve Bartkowski, franchise QB, for David Archer, drafted by no NFL club. I was in Flowery Branch the day the Falcons opened camp while Michael Vick, franchise QB, appeared in federal court. I’ve been around. I’ve seen things. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.
On March 11, the Falcons signed Kirk Cousins, deemed the best quarterback on the market. On April 25, they spent the draft’s eighth pick on another quarterback. I knew they’d taken a liking to Michael Penix Jr., but – I might have mentioned this – I gasped when his name was announced.
After catching my breath, I assumed the Falcons, after two seasons without a competent quarterback, were erring on the side of excess. Hindsight, however, suggests that Penix wasn’t so much an eventual successor as a Plan B for the here and now. Hindsight suggests that, in the 45 days between Cousins’ signing and Penix’s drafting, the Falcons caught a case of buyer’s remorse.
Hindsight also demands we mention something that somehow didn’t seem a big deal at the time: The Falcons paid $180M ($100 guaranteed) for a quarterback who, four months and 11 days earlier, underwent surgery to repair a torn Achilles.
It took one game for alarms to sound. In the opener against Pittsburgh, the Falcons’ game plan seemed tailored to limit Cousins’ movement. They stationed him in the shotgun. They didn’t use play-action. But that was Week 1, coming after Cousins logged nary a preseason snap. Things would surely get better.
Which things did.
Until they didn’t.
In Weeks 2 and 4, Cousins led game-winning drives. In Week 5, he passed for 509 yards and four touchdowns in an overtime victory against Tampa Bay. In Weeks 8 and 9, he completed 79.2% of his passes with seven TDs against zero INTs in victories that staked the Falcons to a two-game lead (plus tiebreaker) in the NFC South.
Then he started throwing the ball to the wrong team. Cousins over the next five games: one TD, nine INTs. His team lost four in a row – adieu, first place – and did everything but lose to the wretched Raiders, as quarterbacked by Falcons castoff Desmond Ridder, on Monday.
The Falcons were so afraid Cousins would throw the ball to the wrong team they didn’t order a pass on first down in the first half. The second half began with a first-down pass. It was intercepted. Eight of their next nine plays were runs. They finished with 37 runs, 17 passes – pro football as choreographed by Paul Johnson. They made but 14 first downs, gained just 261 yards. The offense mustered 13 points.
There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The watching world had seen a team that no longer trusted its $180M ($100M guaranteed) quarterback. Forget moving the ball. Forget scoring points. The Falcons’ greatest concern was limiting the damage their QB could inflict.
Which wasn’t fair to anyone, Cousins included. What began as a physical issue – compromised mobility – took a psychic toll. A veteran of 13 NFL seasons lost faith in his training. An interception against Minnesota 10 days ago saw him start to throw, then reconsider, then throw anyway. This will sound cruel, but I know no other way to phase it: A polished pro had become a mess.
At 8:39 p.m. Tuesday, the Falcons announced that Penix – in coach Raheem Morris’s words – will be “the Atlanta Falcons’ starting quarterback moving forward.” The “moving forward” bit makes it sound as if this isn’t a stop-the-bleeding move.
Under ordinary circumstances, that’d be expected: A quarterback drafted in Round 1 figures to start sooner rather than later. What makes this extraordinary is that the Falcons drafted a franchise QB just after signing a franchise QB. What makes this extraordinary is, over 14 games, Cousins went from being the Falcons’ main man to being yesterday’s man.
I’ve been around. I’ve seen things. This, though, is new.
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