Despite the Falcons being adamant that Kirk Cousins was healthy the entire season, the veteran quarterback revealed earlier this month that wasn’t the case. He suffered an injury in the team’s Week 10 loss to the Saints, which affected both his throwing shoulder and elbow, eventually leading to his benching ahead of Atlanta’s Week 16 contest with the New York Giants.Â
From the Falcons perspective, one of two things is true. Either Terry Fontenot and Raheem Morris were aware of the injury and still thought he gave the team the best chance to win down the stretch while the Falcons were entrenched in a race for the NFC South crown.
That feels like the most plausible explanation, considering Kirk Cousins looked like a shell of the quarterback he was earlier in the season, failing to throw a touchdown pass in four straight weeks, the longest stretch of his career. Even the average fan sitting on the couch with a beer in hand could tell something wasn’t quite right.
Or… the Falcons really had no idea Kirk Cousins was feeling any effects of a lingering injury, despite appearing on the injury report following the loss to the Saints in Week 10. Both are an incredibly bad look for the organization, but the Falcons are sticking with the latter, as Terry Fontenot said today the team was surprised by Cousins’ comments earlier in the offseason and there was “no indication” he was dealing with anything.Â
The Falcons were surprised by Kirk Cousins injury comments Super Bowl week and had no indication he was dealing with anything from Week 11 on, GM Terry Fontenot said this week. Fontenot declined to say what conversations have happened with Cousins since.
— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) February 25, 2025
The “no indication” aspect is what’s genuinely laughable. Sure, the Falcons could be completely blind to the situation despite spending every day with Kirk Cousins, watching his every move in practice, which feels almost impossible. But even if they just watched him on Sundays, it was overwhelmingly apparent every time he threw a changeup outside the numbers or down the field that something wasn’t right. Hell, even the fact that a 13-year veteran went four straight weeks without throwing a touchdown pass should have been enough to raise the alarm bells inside Flowery Branch.
I’ll stick with my original evaluation of the situation, because it’s not remotely possible that the Falcons didn’t know something was going on with Kirk Cousins’ health. They now know that not turning to Michael Penix Jr. sooner likely cost them their chance at the playoffs and are just trying to save as much face as possible while also avoiding any kind of punishment from the league for lying on the injury report, which Cousins was never apart of except ahead of Week 11, something he called “a clerical error.”
Regardless, the cat is out of the bag now, and there’s no way to spin this where the Falcons don’t come out of it with pie in their face.
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Photographer: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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