Cousins Penix saga

[toffee]

The front office called Cousins on the draft day, apparently that left little room for Cousins to complain or influence the decision. That said, Cousins is 35 years old, if the front office believes in Penix, they were right to keep the decision secretive.

https://athlonsports.com/nfl/kirk-cousins-voices-true-feelings-falcons-michael-penix-jr-draft-pick

Kirk followed the money to Atlanta, the Vikings were surprised by his departure.

Kirk Cousins agrees to four-year, $180M contract with Atlanta Falcons

 

[Hawkinaz]

Main reason Cousins left Minnesota was Minny was straight up and told Cousins they were drafting a QB which he wanted no part of. The reason Atlanta is being criticized is the money they spent on Cousins and they needed defensive help now( CB and pass rush) Terry Fortenot has a reputation as being a poor drafter. I don’t have a problem if the Falcons wanted to draft a QB but if that was the plan you don’t sign Cousins for big money but Sam Darnold or Gardner Minshew for 1-2 years. It was amusing after the Penix selection Fortenot trying to explain to the owner what he just did

Right now the Falcons are a rudderless ship

 

[DarkVictory23]

Main reason Cousins left Minnesota was Minny was straight up and told Cousins they were drafting a QB which he wanted no part of. The reason Atlanta is being criticized is the money they spent on Cousins and they needed defensive help now( CB and pass rush) Terry Fortenot has a reputation as being a poor drafter. I don’t have a problem if the Falcons wanted to draft a QB but if that was the plan you don’t sign Cousins for big money but Sam Darnold or Gardner Minshew for 1-2 years. It was amusing after the Penix selection Fortenot trying to explain to the owner what he just did

Right now the Falcons are a rudderless ship

Agreed. I can justify the Cousins move or the Penix move... but not sure about both. They gave up a LOT for two guys to play the same position.

I feel like they set themselves up for a QB controversy after giving one dude a bajillion dollars and that is such a weird place to be in.

 

[Scout]

Penix may end up a very good pro QB but they are not maximizing the edge that a rookie conctract provides. That competitive edge of surrounding Penix with some stud players due to the savings of that rookie contract.

Then the flipside is that Cousins is supposed to be the tipping point for the offense to explode with all that talent. So they could have landed a top tier rookie defender on a cheap rookie deal while most of the money is on the offensive side of the ball.

For this to work out Cousins needs to ball out the next two years and then Penix steps in seamlessly. If Cousins flames out before two years then the Falcons can not bail from his contract until 2026. If they decide to roll with Cousins to the length of his contract then they have lost the edge with Penix rookie deal. But they then have a shorter window of time to make a decision regarding if they want to keep Penix long term and pick up his fifth year option.

Nothing wrong with doing it the Packers way and having a QB sit a few years. But having a QB sit more than three years is pushing it as Cousins signed a four year deal.

 

[projectorfreak]

pretty easy at first glance to mis read the title but yeah ,

 

[projectorfreak]

Pretty stupid but I get it in a small way
They didn't know where they would be able to trade up to for sure and on the other side of it they have to believe they will be dumping a guy within 2 years they just paid 100 mil
Really stupid but when they open the brinks truck and pay penix a huge extension i'm pretty sure they will do it at the expense of fielding an team good enough to keep him upright
Actually kinda feel sorry for mpjr
Atlanta gonna ruin a good kid

 

[BirdsCommaAngry]

If nothing else, this might be a good experiment. If Penix starts after 3+ years and he sucks, that's a pretty good suggestion that sitting a non-project guy can actually make them worse.

 

[AgentDib]

The move makes sense for the Falcons front office if you consider that their primary goal is to stay employed.

The Falcons are favored in the NFC South with Cousins as their QB. Among the scenarios in which this season could turn into a disaster, Cousins getting hurt was at the top list for the Falcons. Drafting an NFL ready prospect like Penix mitigates that risk and raises the floor on the Falcons season. There's a strong chance that with both QBs the Falcons are competitive enough over the next three seasons to keep everybody in the front office employed.

Outsiders don't like the move because their focus is on raising the ceiling in order to win Super Bowls. Even if the Falcons move on from Cousins after two seasons, that is still $90 million in cap space that they would have spent on him that could have gone towards bolstering a lot of other areas on the team. Conversely, they could have used the high first round pick (or traded it) to make their team better behind Cousins.

So on one hand, going all in on either QB and spending the rest of the resources on the team around them gives them more upside. On the other hand, going all-in on one QB could have gotten the front office fired after one season; say if they picked Cousins and he got hurt, or if they picked Penix and he struggled as a rookie.

If your goal is to keep your job then you hedge risks.

 

[BirdsCommaAngry]

That's a good point. If you're an FO guy, keeping your job is probably easily a higher priority than winning a Super Bowl.

 

[AROS]

I just feel bad for Penix. Seems like a good dude that didn’t deserve all this drama to begin his NFL career. I can extend some sympathy for Cousins as well, who is one of the NFL’s class acts and sounded blindsided by their first round choice.

 

[DarkVictory23]

That's a good point. If you're an FO guy, keeping your job is probably easily a higher priority than winning a Super Bowl.

But if Cousins is fine but the rest of the team sucks because you spent all your money on one QB and all your draft capital on his backup, you can still be fired.

 

[NoGain]

Massive front office flub. This is a gift that will keep onj giving for a long time.

 

[Hockey Guy]

The Cousins contract & subsequent large salary cap hit will be off the books just in time to pay Penix franchise QB money making sure they get no salary cap relief/benefit of having a starting QB on an entry-level contract.

I kind of like it from a Seahawks perspective.

 

[TwistedHusky]

If you buy fire insurance, and the house does not burn down over the entire time you insure it - did you 'waste' your money?
It's a weird take that getting a young QB in case an old recently injured QB gets injured again is a mistake.

The SB take is even weirder. No player the Falcons get could have helped the Falcons win a SB, because Cousins doesn't even win PLAYOFF games, much less SBs.
The Cousins move was to sell tickets to a fanbase that was getting antsy after that last season of godawful QB offense. They almost had to do it.
But it wasn't a SB move. Hell, some of those Vikings teams that Cousins was on before were much better than this Falcons team. Not sure how anyone expects an older, more brittle Cousins with less weapons and a worse defense was going to march this team to a SB.

Sure, Atlanta MIGHT win the division. But they would still have Cousins. Which means they lose to whatever wildcard they face. Just like that Vikings team that won the division, came in with a gaudy record, and lost in the wildcard game.
So yeah, you keep rolling the die on QBs until you get a good one. Penix seemed worth the risk.

 

[hawkfan68]

Fontenot should be fired. He drafted Ridder last season and then traded him to the Cards after one season.

One reason they drafted Penix was that maybe they know more about the progress of Cousins’ ACL recovery. They shouldn’t have signed an injured QB to a $180M multi year contract. Blank is too forgiving of owner to fire Fontenot but he should be canned for that.

 

[BirdsCommaAngry]

Fontenot could maybe wiggle out of it if Cousins is good for a year and someone like Aaron Rodgers on a "we're a QB away from winning it all!" team plays their way off their team. Then they can trade him for a modest pick or later picks and cash.

 

[nanomoz]

I like the decision by Atlanta. It's not easy to be in range of talent like Penix 's in the draft. They want to be Green Bay. I can't blame them.

 

[NoGain]

I like the decision by Atlanta. It's not easy to be in range of talent like Penix 's in the draft. They want to be Green Bay. I can't blame them.

I don't think most are faulting them for drafting Penix. They're faulting them for signing Cousins to a mega contract to be their franchise QB and THEN drafting Penix. Crazy.

 

[sutz]

One month in and it's already a saga?

 

[DarkVictory23]

If you buy fire insurance, and the house does not burn down over the entire time you insure it - did you 'waste' your money?
It's a weird take that getting a young QB in case an old recently injured QB gets injured again is a mistake.

The SB take is even weirder. No player the Falcons get could have helped the Falcons win a SB, because Cousins doesn't even win PLAYOFF games, much less SBs.
The Cousins move was to sell tickets to a fanbase that was getting antsy after that last season of godawful QB offense. They almost had to do it.
But it wasn't a SB move. Hell, some of those Vikings teams that Cousins was on before were much better than this Falcons team. Not sure how anyone expects an older, more brittle Cousins with less weapons and a worse defense was going to march this team to a SB.

Sure, Atlanta MIGHT win the division. But they would still have Cousins. Which means they lose to whatever wildcard they face. Just like that Vikings team that won the division, came in with a gaudy record, and lost in the wildcard game.
So yeah, you keep rolling the die on QBs until you get a good one. Penix seemed worth the risk.

The 'weird' take is comparing what they did to purchasing insurance and then undercutting your own analogy by saying they didn't give Cousins that massive contract hoping to win anyway.

You don't pay the same amount in insurance that you do for the thing you're insuring. (And yes, if you did pay that, you wasted your money.) That's what Atlanta did here. They paid Kirk like he is the future of the franchise and then spent a fortune in draft capital on Penix like he is the future of the franchise.

That's not getting insurance. That's spending a fortune on a car and then leasing another to put in your garage in case the car you just bought breaks down.