Falcons' $180,000,000 gamble on Kirk Cousins signals potential 'regret': report
The Atlanta Falcons bet their house on Kirk Cousins and after they did so, they got an insurance policy by drafting his successor. If that sounds strange, you are not the only one. In fact, NFL reporter Brad Gagnon believes that it is one deal that the Falcons might come to regret and that is a big claim for a franchise that leaves in perpetual what-ifs ever since their last Super Bowl loss.
He wrote that the four-year, $180 million deal that they gave the former Minnesota Vikings quarterback could backfire because they did not draft any weapons for their offensive leader in the draft. They instead selected Michael Penix Jr., who will not aid the offense with immediate offensive output.
Add in the fact that Kirk Cousins has only had one playoff win in his career and one can understand where Gagnon is coming from. The reporter also said that the quarterback who looked like an MVP candidate last season before going off injured might not come back and play in the same vein. Achilles injuries are notoriously difficult to come back from, with the added complication that the player in question is 36 years old.
All those factors could lead to the Falcons regretting signing Kirk Cousins, even though one can understand why they did what they did.
Michael Penix Jr. likely to be the pill that helps Falcons swallow the regret if Kirk Cousins does not work out
When the Falcons selected Michael Penix Jr. in the first round of the NFL Draft this year, it immediately set tongues wagging. They had signed a franchise quarterback in the offseason and were already looking for his replacement instead of giving the presumptive incumbent the weapons he needed.
But the truth is that Atlanta has a talented offense and knows that Kirk Cousins is old. They wanted to have a succession plan in place and one can hardly blame them for that. The Green Bay Packers, for example, have done the same for decades now and it has worked out brilliantly for them. Even when someone like the New England Patriots got Jimmy Garoppolo, it only spurred Tom Brady to play even better.
So, the Falcons might have penned the deal with Kirk Cousins expecting both glory and regret and they were fully prepared for the latter eventuality in the draft. Now, it is up to the new quarterback to prove to his franchise that it made the right choice in free agency and not the draft.