The Kirk Cousins experiment might be over for the Atlanta Falcons. The team announced on Tuesday night that they'd be benching the veteran quarterback and starting rookie first-rounder Michael Penix Jr. this weekend when the Falcons take on the New York Giants.
No one can blame the Falcons for benching Cousins. After all, he threw just one touchdown versus nine interceptions in Atlanta's last five games where the Falcons went 1-4 and fell out of first place in the NFC South. A move needed to be made if the Falcons wanted to have any shot at winning the division and making the playoffs for the first time since the 2017 season.
So, a decision was made. Penix will take over as the starter and Cousins will head to the bench. The hope is that Penix can throw for more than just one touchdown during his next few appearances and while interceptions are to be expected from a rookie making his debut, if he can throw more touchdowns than picks, Falcons fans will be content.
More Falcons news:
This move being made has led to the Falcons being a hot topic of conversation on sports talk shows. Former NFL offensive lineman and current ESPN analyst Jeff Saturday put Cousins on blast on Get Up, noting that he's never seen a player regress as badly as Cousins has.
“I can honestly say, I don’t know, and this is no joke -- I’ve played 14 years. I’ve watched football my entire life. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player fall off a cliff... the first nine games to what he’s done in these past five? Honestly, I’ve never seen it tank this bad. And he looks dejected. He looks confused, which you would not think about a guy who’s played… he looks like he has no confidence in anything. I mean it’s like the last shot out of a Roman candle."
Saturday says he's never seen a player "tank" as badly as Kirk Cousins has with Falcons
The Falcons signed Cousins in the offseason so that they'd have a quarterback capable of taking advantage of the weapons they have on offense in Atlanta. The move was a bit controversial considering that Cousins would be entering his age-36 season and was coming off an Achilles injury but that didn't stop the Falcons from doing it.
Signing Cousins also didn't stop the Falcons from spending their top-10 draft pick on Penix, who now will take over and likely start the final three games of the season. Penix had a standout season with the Washington Huskies in 2023 but it was a big surprise when Atlanta drafted him considering all of the money they had shelled out to Cousins.
Cousins started off decently enough and the Falcons were 6-3 and atop the NFC South at the halfway point of the season. That's when disaster struck, as Cousins, as Saturday put it, fell off a cliff and started playing poorly. He threw just zero touchdowns and eight interceptions during the Falcons' four-game losing streak and just like that, they were looking up at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the division.
This was supposed to be a season that ended with the Falcons winning the division and maybe even a playoff game or two. While Atlanta could still win out and take the division from the Bucs (assuming they lose at least a game since the Falcons own the tiebreaker), the decision to sign Cousins in the first place is going to be heavily scrutinized and rightfully so.