Are the Falcons lying to us about the health of Kirk Cousins?

The overarching question of the Falcons’ Week 1 disaster surrounds Kirk Cousins’ health.

From the eye test, it was clear that the veteran was still feeling the effects of his Achilles injury. He was figuratively and literally flat. However, Raheem Morris came out on Monday and said that he was healthy.

I’m not drinking the kool-aid because it was obvious that he wasn’t fully healthy, or at the very least, Zac Robinson failed in his play calling debut.

According to ESPN Stats and Information, Atlanta was in pistol or shotgun on 96% of their snaps; on 26 snaps of the pistol, they ran the ball 21 times (81%). On 22 snaps out of the shotgun, the Falcons had zero designed runs.

So, like I said, either it was so incredibly elementary of a game plan that Robinson is obviously not cut out for this kind of thing or the more likely explanation — Kirk Cousins isn’t fully healthy. Ben Solak of ESPN had a stat that backs the latter up.

“Cousins moved an average of 3.1 yards per dropback in this game, which is the least dropback movement he has had in a single game of his career by more than a full yard,” Solak writes.

Now, it’s not like a ton of shotgun or pistol is a bad thing. However, the elements of Sean McVay’s offenses (which is where Zac Robinson cut his teeth as a coach) and Kirk Cousins’ offenses under Kevin O’Connell were completely absent from the Falcons offense in Week 1.

There was nothing under center and no play action. Those are instrumental elements of McVay and O’Connell’s offenses. So, either Robinson went rogue from the systems that he learned in Los Angeles, or Cousins was limited.

I’m going to go with the latter because the Falcons offense wasn’t the only indicator of Cousins’ health. His own footwork suggested he wasn’t 100%. Kirk Cousins, who is an 11-year veteran with good mechanics, didn’t look comfortable driving the football to generate any kind of power on his throws.

Now, it could be that Cousins doesn’t trust his body just yet, which is certainly the case with a lot of injuries like this, but it doesn’t matter the reason. The only thing that matters is what gives the Falcons the best chance of winning football games. If it’s a healthy Michael Penix Jr., then he should start games.

But what we aren’t going to do is pretend that Kirk Cousins is fully healthy right now. We all have eyes, so is Raheem Morris lying to Falcons fans?

—

Photographer: Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire