The Falcons are expected to bench veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins in favor of rookie Michael Penix for their Week 16 matchup with the Giants, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris released a statement confirming the switch under center: “After review we have made the decision Michael Penix will be the Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback 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.”
Cousins has struggled in recent weeks, throwing nine interceptions and just one touchdown since Week 10. That culminated in another rough game against the Raiders on Monday Night Football in Week 15 in which the veteran signal-caller completed just 11 of his 17 passing attempts for 112 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Reporters then asked Morris about Cousins’ level of play after Monday night’s game.
“He’s got to play better,” Morris said, via ProFootball Talk’s Mike Florio. “We’ve got to find a way to get him to play better.”
Morris was then asked about the possibility of replacing Cousins with Penix, the eighth overall pick in this past April’s draft. Morris’ answer fueled speculation that he was considering such a move: “We’ve got everybody on our roster for a reason, right?…Those things will always be discussed. That’s just the nature of the beast in football. It’s just so heavily talked about at the quarterback position because there’s only one guy out there.”
The same questions resurfaced during Morris’ Tuesday presser. His non-answer hinted that his staff was already thinking about benching Cousins. This marks the second time in three years the Falcons have benched their starting quarterback in December. Their decision to park Marcus Mariota late in his first season with the team effectively led the former No. 2 overall pick away. The team’s ensuing Desmond Ridder plan failing keyed the Cousins-Penix offseason.
“We still have to go through that process,” Morris said (via Josh Kendall of The Athletic). “All those things will happen over the course of the week. We didn’t play well enough at the quarterback position.”
Now, Penix will make his first NFL start at a crucial time for the 7-7 Falcons. They trail the Buccaneers by one game in the NFC South and are two games back of the Commanders for the NFC’s last wild card spot. Atlanta’s front office drew criticism for using a top-10 pick on Penix just a month after signing Cousins to a four-year, $180MM contract in free agency, but the gamble might pay off if the rookie can lead the team to the playoffs.
Penix has only thrown five passes across two garbage-time appearances this season, but he has been “doing well behind the scenes,” according to Pro Football Network’s Adam Caplan. The former Washington Husky led the NCAA with 4,903 passing yards (and 11 interceptions) in his last season, earning the Maxwell Award and a second-place finish for the Heisman Trophy. Penix will be the sixth of 11 quarterbacks selected in the 2024 draft to start at least one game as a rookie.
The Falcons drafted Penix as the future of their franchise, but he will be taking over for Cousins far earlier than expected. Cousins’ contract included fully guaranteed salaries in 2024 and 2025, indicating that he would have at least two years as the team’s starter. Arthur Blank had said the team did not necessarily plan to draft Penix at No. 8, but the team’s football ops department viewed Penix as too good to pass up — despite the standout college passer not being mocked that high for the most part — at that point of the draft.
Cousins expressed shock, joining most of the football-following population, when the Falcons pulled the trigger and drafted Penix eighth overall. The Falcons were later docked a fifth-round pick for tampering in signing the former Washington and Minnesota starter. Months later, his future in Atlanta is in doubt.
The Falcons will have to navigate Cousins’ sizable contract if they want to move on from him this offseason. Cutting him outright before June 1 would force the team to absorb the remaining $65MM of Cousins’ guaranteed money as a dead cap hit in 2025, per OverTheCap. That would be the largest single-season dead cap hit in NFL history, surpassing the $53MM the Broncos took on this year after cutting Russell Wilson.
A post-June 1 release would allow the Falcons to spread out the dead money with $40MM in 2025 and $25MM in 2026. A trade, even for minimal draft compensation, would be the most efficient option; the Falcons could transfer Cousins’ $27.5MM fully guaranteed base salary in 2025 to the acquiring team while accepting the remaining $37.5MM of his prorated signing bonus as a dead cap hit.
About time. Let’s do this!….What could go wrong? lol
Exactly, why not see why you wasted your first round pick?
If he plays well–as should be expected–it will prove to have not been a wasted pick and may even prove to be a shrewd one.
Nice choice, Kirk.
Lol
Just…..
Lol
WOOF! Bow down, Giants!
You like that!
Kirk “no”
Crazy that he could throw for 500 yards earlier in the year and completely lose it. He has happy feet, not stepping into throws, and isn’t hitting timing routes. Worse yet, opponents are jumping those routes because they have no fear of the deep ball (not all Cousins fault on this).
Gotta change it up or risk losing the team. Got two winnable games out of the three remaining and the only decent team is Washington (who has ZERO wins against teams above .500 this year .. yeesh).
Atlanta’s run-in: New York Giants home, Washington away (Sunday night), Carolina home (Week 18).
Tampa Bay’s run-in: Dallas away (Sunday night), Carolina home, New Orleans home (Week 18).
And the Falcons have a 2-game sweep of the Buccaneers as the tie-breaker.
Yep. As I stated. Two winnable games and a third againsat a team who, despite their record, has not proven they can beat a capable team.
I am not saying it’s an easier road than Tampa, but it’s not illogical to think with better QB play the Falcons could win all three. If that happens and Tampa wins out, the Falcons would still have a ‘possible’ chance at that last wild card.
Worst case is they don’t make it, but they at least get a look at Penix and he has something to build on for next year if they decide to break it off with Cousins.
I will readily admit that I thought Cousins would put them over the top in the NFC South this year. Maybe his performances against Tampa will be enough to where the tie-breaker will matter. In that case, kudos to Kirk for doing his part. Sadly, I just don’t see him getting right.
Should ATL and TB both run the table, Washington would have to lose to Philly and/or Dallas for the Falcons to get in. Commanders have those NFC East games sandwiched around the Atlanta game (and ATL-WSH is now on a Sunday night).
A little drama there. Collapse is a over-statement.
If Atlanta and Tampa both run the table, Tampa wins the NFC South. That leaves Atlanta at 10-7 with the H2H tie-breaker on Washington. That means Washington would have to win BOTH of it’s remaining games to avoid having the same record as Atlanta.
That is not a collapse. It’s entirely plausible they could lose to the Eagles or Cowboys, especially given the Redskins have already been beaten by both teams. And don’t forget, the Cowboys beat them without Dak and at Washington. It’s entirely plausible the Redskins might be underdogs in both of those games.
‘an’, not ‘a’. My bad.
The TL:DR version is Atlanta still has both the division and a 7th seed in play.
The 4-int game against the Chargers he was throwing lollipops to the defense. Absolute lack of arm strength all of a sudden, almost like Baseball pitchers get dead-arm. Is that a thing for QBs too?
He hasn’t had an above average arm his entire career. He relied on mechanics, quick progressions, timing, and accuracy. His mechanics are failing him right now, which is sapping his throwing ability and causing less zip and far less accuracy than he had in past years. His reads are ok, but the defenses don’t fear his arm.
Watch the game from last night if you can. His base for throwing was terrible on most of those plays. I am not trying to act like I know it all, it was just so horribly obvious. No idea what is going on, but I think his confidence fell apart, which is crazy given the 500 yard game earlier in the year.
I posted a couple of weeks ago that he should be benched for the 2nd half against the Chargers.
Strange time to do this when they are so close to a playoff spot. But then again, maybe not. The Giants should be an easier opportunity for Penix to get his feet wet and possibly provide a spark. And even if he falters, they should still get the win (considering the Giants may be starting Tim Boyle, and it’s not like Lock or Devito are any good, either) and have two more games to run Cousins back out there if necessary.
You nailed it. I think the Falcons have lost confidence in even beating the Giants or Panthers with Kirk at this point.
Well, there are multiple messy directions this offseason QB maneuvering could have gone, and this is one of them. Seems like someone might have a good buy-low opportunity on Cousins, if he can regain some of his physical ability with more time removed from the injury. There’s no way the Falcons can have an inexpensive QB room in the next couple of years no matter what. If Penix is really good, the pick was a good one. If he’s anything short of really good, it was always going to be a weird move, and I personally thought he was a reach. We’ll see. I hope this works out. I’d love to see what that offense can do with strong quarterback play. But I also hope Cousins gets a shot to put himself back together. This was all a rough way to do the guy, money aside.
If the Falcons never signed Cousins the Penix pick would have been reasonable. I’m more of a believer in Penix than most fans it seems but I think he can do well in Atlanta especially if they get a reliable, veteran possession type receiver to compliment Drake London and Bijon Robinson in the backfield. But they signed Cousins and drafted Penix so they’re left with this mess.
I want to see what this looks like
I thought tua was going to be horrible and I was wrong. I see the same with penix, weird mechanics coming from the left side. Soft landing spot against a bad Giants team. They should run Robinson and allegeir all day and put him in good positions with play action. I like that the falcons didn’t throw him into the fire to play too early but they really put themselves in a tough spot, contractually -moving forward
Isn’t gonna end well. Penix sucks too. Here’s a thought feed your 6th overall pick RB.