By: Colin Lacy

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

With the NFL Wild Card round starting for the 2024 postseason this weekend, one team that had a shot to play on into postseason, but came up short to end the regular season made some news as Atlanta Falcons GM Terry Fontenot met with the media Thursday afternoon.

Fontenot met with the media and when asked about the plan for Kirk Cousins, the Falcons GM said the Atlanta is “comfortable” with having the $180 million QB serve as the back-up moving forward.

“We are very comfortable moving forward with (Cousins) as backup,” Fontenot said Thursday.

“Kirk is a great man, and he’s been great support for Mike. We are very comfortable moving forward with him as the backup.”

After turnover issues, the Falcons made the decision to bench Cousins officially going into week 16 against the Giants and turned to Michael Penix Jr. to lead the Atlanta offense for the final three regular season game.

Coming into the season, after Atlanta signed Kirk Cousin for $180 million to pilot the Falcons just weeks before drafting Penix in the first round after his magical run with University of Washington.

The sequence of moves left a lot of Falcons fans scratching their heads. While either one set alone would be great for a Falcons team who has been thirsting for a productive quarterback ever since the front office “let” Matt Ryan go to the Colts…Still not over that. The rub came with the question of “why both?”

The Falcons plan for this marriage was, at least publicly, was for Cousins to navigate the Falcons for two seasons while mentoring Michael Penix Jr. When the turnover woes came into play, the timeline was expedited by well over a year.

Terry Fontenot also told the media that the Falcons signed Cousins expecting to see a “high-level quarterback play for two years.”  The Atlanta GM would go on to say, “the plan was for Kirk to play longer and for Mike to sit longer.”

Now the question comes into play of while the Falcons are “comfortable” with Cousins continuing the mentorship part of the plan and serving as the backup quarterback, is Cousins comfortable with the new plan?

Cousins showed flashes of still being a really good quarterback in the NFL, thinking back to his record setting 509 yards passing in an overtime win against Tampa Bay.

Folks also thought this was a match made in heaven with back-to-back wins against the Cowboys and Buccaneers for a second time, but that was the pinnacle of the season for Cousins.

After that stretch, the final five starts for the former Viking turned into throwing one touchdown and nine interceptions which would tie the NFL lead for the season with sixteen picks.

Especially after the Netflix Documentary “Quarterback” a few years ago, Cousins has been a fan favorite for his personality and leadership qualities everywhere he’s been, especially in his time with Minnesota, and that’s no different in Atlanta.

While a well-established NFL quarterback very easily could have turned the relationship sour after being benched in year one, Fontenot alluded to that being far from this situation, “Kirk is a great man, and he’s been great support for Mike. We are very comfortable moving forward with him as the backup.”

This is one, I’m torn. From the Falcons perspective, it would be awesome for Cousins to be essentially a second QB coach for Atlanta and mentor Michael Penix Jr. as he begins what the Birds believe is a long and successful career.

On the flip side, I also think Cousins has a lot to give to a team and could be a crucial factor going forward.