3 days after the stunning draft decide crashed into different NFL franchise battle rooms like a wrecking ball coming via an adjoining wall, the Atlanta Falcons’ rationale for deciding on Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 total has been cemented.
The query now could be what it manner for the rest of Kirk Cousins’ profession.
Publicly and privately, the Falcons’ messaging surrounding their collection of Penix lower than two months after signing Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal are some model of this: Penix has a unprecedented skill that Atlanta believes it’ll want one day, so the franchise took him whilst it nonetheless had the danger. And an important a part of that call: Workforce proprietor Arthur Clean signed off on it. That is what more than one assets with wisdom of the verdict informed Yahoo Sports activities, together with the ones aligned with the Falcons, Penix and Cousins, whose profession has now apparently been locked right into a countdown in Atlanta.
Long past is the perception that Clean used to be in some way at midnight when it got here to the Falcons’ plans to focus on Penix, which turned into some degree of imprecise hypothesis after basic supervisor Terry Fontenot used to be captured on Atlanta’s battle room video feed having an animated dialogue with the membership proprietor following the decide.
In the course of the instant, it seemed like Fontenot may well be explaining the beautiful variety to Clean, specifically to the out of doors global and a few different NFL groups that by no means noticed the decide coming. That angle used to be perfect encapsulated by way of one staff supply who texted a six-word query throughout the draft.
“Is Terry seeking to get fired?”
No, Fontenot wasn’t seeking to get fired. And no, Clean wasn’t at midnight.
What that feed of Fontenot’s animated post-pick dialog with Clean failed to turn used to be what came about in Atlanta’s battle room moments previous. Particularly, Clean sitting with Fontenot and head trainer Raheem Morris as they known as Penix to congratulate him at the variety, and Clean taking the telephone at one level and telling the quarterback, “We’re excited you’ll be a Falcon and sit up for the continuing good fortune of your fantastic profession. … We admire you.”
By the point the decide used to be introduced and jaws had dropped around the NFL, Clean used to be already shaking arms within the battle room. The unfolding scene, on the very least, spoke volumes about Cousins’ status. In spite of a freelance that can dole out $100 million in assured cash during the 2025 season, his status because the workforce’s beginning quarterback can be below consistent overview from this level ahead. Similar to the status of Penix because the workforce’s backup.
In brief, the cash has been paid to Cousins and the draft decide has been invested on Penix. The sunken value is established and irreversible. Now it’s as much as Cousins to stay the talk to a minimal. A lot adore it used to be with Drew Brees when the then-San Diego Chargers bought rookie Philip Rivers within the 2004 NFL Draft. A lot adore it used to be for Alex Smith when the Kansas Town Chiefs traded up and decided on Patrick Mahomes in 2017. And far adore it used to be when Brett Favre used to be earmarked for substitute by way of first-round decide Aaron Rodgers … after which Rodgers used to be earmarked for substitute by way of first-round decide Jordan Love. In each and every of the ones eventualities, the more youthful draft decide in the end received out. Rivers took over for Brees after two years. Mahomes succeeded Smith after one season. Rodgers took over for Favre after 3 seasons after which Love took the reins from Rodgers in the similar time span.
So the playbook for this transfer has been written. The one vital distinction for Atlanta is Penix can be a 24-year-old rookie this season and Cousins used to be simply given a sell off truck of cash in unfastened company. However the Falcons have their causes. They usually’re the use of quite a lot of channels to cause them to identified.
Packers’ Favre-Rodgers situation wasn’t best instance for Falcons. Check out Mahomes in Okay.C.
Let’s pass forward and set the desk for the way this decide came about prior to we get into the battle Cousins has in entrance of him. What follows is the reason the Falcons are promoting at the back of the scenes to justify deciding on Penix and overlapping him with Cousins. You’ll be able to select to imagine it all or none of it. That is the tale emanating from throughout the franchise, and the Falcons are going to keep on with it:
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Excluding his tape over the last two seasons at Washington, Penix’s exercises within the draft procedure left a deep and resolute influence throughout the group about what the verdict makers seen as uncommon arm skill. First throughout his professional day on March 28 — which came about in entrance of assistant basic supervisor Kyle Smith — and once more on April 5, when the Falcons despatched a flotilla of key staff to a personal exercise with the quarterback in Seattle. That staff integrated Fontenot and head trainer Raheem Morris. Morris manned the linebacker place for one of the vital drills, and after drafting Penix raved about listening to the rate of the ball because it went over his head.
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Following that have, a transparent consensus used to be established between the training group of workers and staff division that Penix certified as an elite participant on their draft board. Of their quarterback stack, their pecking order settled into USC’s Caleb Williams at No. 1, then Penix, then LSU’s Jayden Daniels. Total, Penix used to be rated a number of the Falcons’ most sensible 4 possibilities, with Ohio State wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. rounding out the crowd. The sort of lofty analysis made it just about inconceivable for the Falcons to business again with any self assurance that every other workforce wouldn’t choose Penix within the most sensible 10.
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Along with his grade established, the franchise resolution makers stepped again and seemed on the extra expansive quarterback window. What they discovered used to be a trail fraught with doable pitfalls. The 2025 quarterback elegance these days does now not seem to have the standard or intensity of the 2024 elegance, and because it stands, now not a unmarried participant is perceived by way of the Falcons to have the skill Penix brings to the desk. Moreover, if the workforce achieves its anticipated stage of good fortune with Cousins over the following two seasons, its draft positioning can be weakened and provide a tougher perspective to discovering his successor within the 2025 or 2026 drafts.
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Clean used to be on board with the decide in a vital manner. Following the decide, the knee-jerk query turned into, “How may Clean conform to devote that a lot cash to Cousins after which join spending a vital draft asset and every other $5.5 million according to season at the backup?” The solution, from a handful of assets: After gazing Fontenot and the former training group of workers juggle a failed try to broaden third-round decide Desmond Ridder right into a franchise participant, Clean used to be motivated to overlap a late-career Cousins with a “particular” participant ready within the wings. Particularly if that participant wouldn’t be simple to obtain in years yet to come. It used to be now not misplaced on Clean that the Chiefs made a identical transfer in 2017 once they done a marvel business up the board for Mahomes when no one used to be anticipating it, then sat him at the back of a gradual veteran starter in Smith. And the extra cash invested on the backup quarterback spot? Clean simply paid backup Taylor Heinicke just about $7.3 million remaining season, which is kind of the going price for the NFL’s “perfect” No. 2 quarterbacks. And there’s a silver-lining on this example, with the Falcons double-dipping at backup with a participant they plan to groom as the long run starter.
When taken within the context of the prior good fortune of Rivers, Mahomes, Rodgers and Love, it’s now not exhausting to look how a membership proprietor, basic supervisor and head trainer may align at the back of a identical plan. Although the plan surrounds an older rookie quarterback who had some asymmetric grades around the NFL, and is derived within the face of those that insist the franchise will have to be in a “win now” mindset — spending most sensible draft selections at the championship job to hand, moderately than squirreling away a quarterback of the long run.
The Chiefs heard the ones lawsuits once they took Mahomes. The Packers heard them, too, once they decided on Rodgers and Love. Neither franchise cared what the out of doors global considered their plans. And each have had the great fortune of popping out of the opposite facet of the funding with a beginning quarterback within the certain facet of the ledger.
That’s what Cousins is operating towards in Atlanta. The historical past of “upside” in those gambles. To not point out the truth that he doesn’t have a observe document throughout the workforce. In contrast to Alex Smith and Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, there are not any entrenched locker room infantrymen at the back of him, offering fortify from their years of enjoying in combination.
As an alternative, Cousins is coming into what’s successfully a mercenary contract. He’s a two-year choice that can be propped up by way of his paycheck in the meanwhile after which his stage of play in the longer term. His perfect weapon? Good fortune. The longer he wins the best way Drew Brees received with the Chargers, the longer Penix will take a seat at the bench like Rivers. And the extra accolades he achieves past due in his profession like Rodgers (assume: large statistics, All-Professional votes and even perhaps an MVP candidacy), the fewer intense the dialog will turn out to be to transport him out of the best way.
None of it’ll be simple. However all of it’ll be important. Cousins turns 36 this summer season and is already paid. So far as the fan base can be involved, that’s actually all he’s owed. The remaining should be earned. Once more. And if Cousins didn’t remember the fact that two weeks in the past, all he had to do used to be to listen to his new workforce proprietor, Arthur Clean, categorical his appreciation and hopes of persisted good fortune for the man who’s making plans to exchange him.