As the Falcons prepare to travel to Minnesota in a reunion for Kirk Cousins, all anyone in Atlanta is worried about is the quarterback dilemma, and NFL insider James Palmer shined a light on the situation.
“I know this is the feeling in the building: they’re sticking with Kirk Cousins and seeing what can move forward and what can change over the next couple of weeks, because this is still new to everybody,” Palmer said, via Daniel Flick of Sports Illustrated.
The Falcons clearly find themselves in uncharted waters, no matter how many times they want to point to the Packers as proof of concept. There’s never been a single instance where an organization gives a free agent $180 million then turns around a mere weeks later and uses their most valuable draft pick, a top 10 selection, on a successor.
The Falcons are making it up as they go, but Cousins’ play may force their hands. Penix will undoubtedly face typical rookie struggles, and some parts of the offense won’t get any better with the quarterback change — i.e., issues that stem from Zac Robinson. However, there’s clearly a difference in physical talent.
“They think he is a more athletic, more explosive, more of a vertical threat Kirk Cousins,” Palmer continued. “They think there’s a lot of similar traits, he just has some of the other physical traits that maybe Kirk Cousins doesn’t have. These are all things they love about Penix. They wanted to hold that over there as long as possible, but they absolutely love the rookie quarterback.”
A quarterback change doesn’t appear to be a couple of bad plays away, but a couple of more bad games from Cousins, and things will get interesting.
“There’s no conversation, to my understanding, in the building right now about making a quarterback change,” Palmer said. “But if this happens for another two weeks, and things start to slip away in Atlanta in a team that was almost certain to be in the postseason, that conversation is, most likely, to my understanding, going to happen in the building.”
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Photographer: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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