Kirk Cousins on mindset of Falcons drafting Michael Penix Jr.: 'Be a steward, not an owner'

Kirk Cousins will simply control what he can control, regarding Michael Penix Jr. After he signed a guaranteed contract with the Atlanta Falcons, the team drafted Penix Jr. in the first round of the draft.

It was certainly a surprise considering how Atlanta built this offseason. Signing Cousins felt like the missing piece to the offensive puzzle. But Penix Jr. was considered a reach, a wasted pick and other things by analysts.

Atlanta wants to build for the future and be ready, but Cousins put all of that behind him and is just looking forward.

“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 on Bussin’ With The Boys. “And so let’s deal in reality, you know, and recognize that fact and then be a steward, not an owner. So I just believe that I got to steward what comes my way and control what I can control, which is what a steward does but a steward doesn’t worry about that which they can’t control. An owner does. 

“An owner would be like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ So I just got to steward this. And just, you know, do kind of what I’ve always done as a player and let the chips fall where they may.”

Before tearing his Achilles in 2023, Cousins got off to a great start statistically with the Vikings last season. A 4-4 record to show for it, he threw for 2,331 yards, 18 touchdowns, five interceptions and a 69.5% completion percentage.

“Vikings three years ago, I was finishing up a round of golf before the draft on Thursday and I’m on like the 18th hole walking up the fairway,” Cousins said. “And Clint Kubiak calls me and he says (we) wanna give a heads up like we may draft a quarterback tonight. I said ‘okay.’ So I understood that like for a while, you know, teams are always thinking about succession plans, are always thinking about that. And they didn’t end up drafting one that year.

“But you’re made aware that like this is a possible direction that could go. So my point is, this isn’t like a foreign concept. There’s an awareness that this is the NFL, you know, anything can happen. And so it kind of was a part of me.” 

Cousins then referenced a story from when he committed to Michigan State, but there were five quarterbacks in front of him. He wasn’t the first choice then either.

“I remember I was committed to Michigan State, so I was trying to go to Michigan State but they didn’t offer me, I go on my official visit, no offers,” Cousins said. “They explained to me at the visit. They said we’ve offered five other quarterbacks, if any of them commit, we will not offer you because we’re gonna take one quarterback in this recruiting class. If all five don’t commit, we would then maybe send you an offer. So you’ll do this official visit, but no offer. 

“So we did the official visit and like a week and a half later, I get a call from Coach Dantonio. He offered me a scholarship. What he was saying was as they went 0-for-5. So I said okay, and I didn’t commit right there in the moment but slept on it. The next day, I call him and I said, I’d like to be a Spartan. So I committed.”