3 Surprising Atlanta Falcons headlines to emerge this summer

2. Atlanta loses a 5th round pick after investigation

No matter the league it is safe to assume that players and teams talk among themselves. Perhaps this goes outside of league rules at times and that was the expected case with the Falcons and Kirk Cousins. Cousins was interviewed shortly after signing and talked about having contact with a member of Atlanta's training staff.

This set off alarm bells as to how soon Atlanta was talking with Cousins directly. The following investigation ended up with a very light fine and the loss of a late-round pick.

It is easy to argue this was the best-case scenario for Kirk Cousins and Atlanta's front office. The investigation ended with Atlanta's only proven wrongdoing being making travel arrangments during a time when teams aren't allowed to do so.

Atlanta's fine and pick loss points to an investigation that didn't have enough to say Atlanta did anything completely out of bounds. What they were actually punished for is arranging travel with players they signed during a period when nothing was official. For this reason, teams are limited to who they can contact or what they are allowed to do for deals that are all but signed. This is a great result for Atlanta and now allows the team to move on.