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"Let him play to his strengths": Ex-NFL QB blames Falcons for stifling Kirk Cousins' potential

This offseason, Kirk Cousins left the Minnesota Vikings to join the Atlanta Falcons. As a free agent, Cousins signed a four-year, $180 million contract with the Falcons, marking the third team of his NFL career.

The Falcons started the season strong, going 6-3 through their first nine games, but they have lost three in a row and are now 6-6. Part of the reason for their woes is Cousins's struggling play.

Over the last three games, Cousins has not thrown a touchdown pass and has been intercepted six times.

Former NFL quarterback and ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky believes the Falcons are holding Kirk Cousins back. Cousins, who has excelled in play-action passing in recent years, has yet to throw a touchdown on a play-action pass this season, despite being on pace for more than 80 such attempts.

Orlovsky said on NFL Live:

"He has zero touchdown passes this year in play-action. Kirk Cousins was one of the, if not the, best play action pass quarterbacks in football over the last four years. He's got no touchdown passes in play action? He's on track to have 85 play-action pass attempts."
"I'm not sitting there saying that's the cure-all. But my goodness, Atlanta, what are we doing? Let's let him play to his strengths and do that much more than you are right now."

The Atlanta Falcons said they'd like to get Kirk Cousins throwing more play-action after their Week 12 bye

Atlanta Falcons OTA Offseason Workout - Source: Getty
Atlanta Falcons OTA Offseason Workout - Source: Getty

Returning from their Week 12 bye, Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris acknowledged the need to incorporate more play-action into the offense. Speaking to the media for the first time in a week, Morris said the coaching staff had identified play-action as an area for improvement:

"It's something that we want to increase, something that we want to do better, something that we want to make more important, more a part of our game."
"We have 'em, we got 'em. They've always been in our program and always will be a part of our program but its something that we definitely neglected it."

According to TruMedia, the Falcons, at the time of their bye, percentage of plays using play-action (8%). The Washington Commanders ranked first at 22%.

The Falcons are the only team in the NFL with less than 10% of their plays involving play-action, marking the lowest usage for Cousins since his 2018 season with the Vikings when 20% of his passes came via play-action.

This season, Kirk Cousins has used play-action on just 14% of his passes.

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