In the latest MMQB from Albert Breer, Cousins’ journey to Atlanta is outlined in intriguing detail.
The basic contours of Kirk Cousins-to-the-Atlanta-Falcons have been out there for a while. Cousins was intrigued by an opportunity to come home and a team he felt was a good fit, while the Falcons felt Cousins was the right fit for a team that badly needed a major upgrade at quarterback. A big contract ensued, Cousins may have accidentally revealed some tampering, and Cousins is now here to try to pilot the Falcons to bigger and better things over the next two-to-four seasons.
If you’re interested in a deeper dive into how this all came together, though, that’s now out there. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer wrote about the process of prying Cousins loose from Minnesota, and in the process illuminates how the Falcons approached the most consequential decision of the offseason.
The good news for anyone who worried that the Falcons may have ignored non-Cousins options? They really did consider them, even if one of those options was Baker Mayfield.
So at the end of the deep dive, the Falcons had Cousins as their top veteran target, Tampa’s Baker Mayfield after him, and a comfort level with the top quarterbacks in the draft as well, which brought Atlanta to the 2024 combine in position to investigate a trade up.
While the likelihood was Cousins would remain the top target, the Falcons resolved to look into moving within the top five. Inquiries with the Bears, Commanders and Patriots at the combine didn’t go very far—none of the three were willing to move, at least not at that early juncture. And waiting for that to change would mean missing the market for veterans, a risk the Falcons were never going to take.
Because of his fit in an offense that will be similar to what Kevin O’Connell ran in Minnesota and the instant boost he figures to give the passing game, Cousins was indeed a player the Falcons’ brass apparently zeroed in on early. But the Falcons have a lot of coaches with quarterbacking or quarterbacks coach experience and tasked them with sifting through the team’s potential options, with some cursory interest in Justin Fields on the table and Mayfield (who is solid, despite how much I like to jeer him because he’s a Buccaneer) if they couldn’t get Cousins. It appears the only truly desirable options were Cousins or trading up, and the Falcons did not feel confident they could move up.
That likely settled things for the Falcons, who Breer reports would have used the money they didn’t spend on defensive signings, following a road similar to…well, the one the Vikings have followed without Cousins. Names on that list included Danielle Hunter—the Falcons were evidently outbid for him but still tried, per recent reporting—and Christian Wilkins, who landed with the Raiders.
The entire article is worth a read if you’re curious about how the whole negotiation process went and how the Falcons landed Cousins.
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