Kirk Cousins addresses reaction to Atlanta Falcons drafting Michael Penix
Just about everyone was shocked when the Atlanta Falcons used their first round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to select Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr with the No. 8 overall selection. Especially after Atlanta decided to sign veteran QB Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract in March.
Many were curious how Cousins reacted to the Falcons’ head-scratching decision on draft night, receiving a phone call moments before the pick was made that they would be selecting Penix a little over a month after declaring him as their quarterback of the immediate future.
Cousins recently joined Will Compton and Taylor Lewan on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast and opened up about the events of draft day. A story that he knows all too well looking back on his football career.
“I think you’re reminded again that there are things you control and there’s a lot of things you don’t control,” Cousins said. “And so let’s deal in reality and recognize that fact and then be a steward and not an owner. So I just believe that I gotta steward what comes my way and control what I control, which is what a steward does.”
“But a steward doesn’t worry about that which they can’t control, an owner does, Cousins added. “An owner would be like oh my goodness. So I just got to steward this and just do kind of what I’ve always done as a player and let the chips fall where they may.”
Per usual, Cousins publicly addressed the situation like a consummate pro. Entering the 13th year of his NFL career this upcoming season with a full understanding of how the business works. Sharing with the boys what he learned from his time in Minnesota when he was informed three years ago that the Vikings may draft a quarterback in the 2021 NFL Draft during a round of golf.
“So I understood that for a while teams are always thinking about succession plans, always thinking about that,” Cousins explained. “And they didn’t end up drafting one that year, but you’re made aware that this is a possible direction they could go. My point is this isn’t like a foreign concept, there’s an awareness that this is the NFL. Anything can happen.”
Even as a high school recruit Cousins did not receive an offer from Michigan State until five other quarterbacks declined commitments to the school. Only for the Spartans to offer Nick Foles following Cousins’ signing after saying they’d only have one quarterback in their recruiting class.
“I said a month ago you told me that there were five guys, that if they committed you wouldn’t offer anybody else. Now I committed and those same rules don’t apply, you’re now offering somebody else. I said what do you think that makes me feel like?” Cousins asked.
Foles ended up transferring out of Michigan State and Cousins eventually won the starting job for the Spartans. Thrust into a quarterback competition yet again after Washington drafted him in the No. 102 overall pick in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL Draft after selecting Robert Griffin III with the second overall pick.
“This whole competing for your job, the coaches having to have a full quarterback room, have good players, trying to get as much depth as they can. It’s more like copy and paste than something new for me, because this goes so far back to kind of how it always has been,” Cousins concluded.
Throughout his career Cousins has never shied away from competition, which he’ll have to do once again. This time against a talented rookie quarterback as he himself comes off of a season-ending Achilles injury and ranks fifth in passing yards and fourth in touchdowns amongst active NFL quarterbacks. As all eyes will be on Atlanta under center to see how things play out both in the short and long term moving forward.