90 minutes prior to his football life being turned upside down, Kirk Cousins was at the Atlanta Falcons’ draft party, hyping up fans. With the quarterback having signed a three-year pact worth nearly $100 million in guaranteed money, the expectation was that Atlanta would add another piece to bolster its defense.
That expectation was a little too presumptuous. After taking stock of what they had already had in their cupboard, the Falcons decided that despite making a massive financial commitment to Cousins, they would take another swing at a quarterback position and stash away Michael Penix Jr. for a later date. The team’s general manager, Terry Fontenot, said they’d have no problem with him sitting four or five years if it came at the cost of the Falcons being a perennial Super Bowl contender with Cousins at the helm.
But Cousins came into this marriage under the assumption that he would be the guy and there would be no surprises. Well, Cousins was only given a heads-up while the Falcons were on the clock, and his agent later informed reporters that there was no prior communication that something like this would happen.
The Falcons’ decision to draft a quarterback impacts their relationship with Cousins. Some sports media members opted for measured analysis of that, while others dove headfirst into dramatic comparisons. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero falls into the latter camp.
“This isn’t a relationship that had gone south,” said the NFL Network insider. “This is cheating on your wife on the honeymoon.”
“This isn’t a relationship that had gone south. This is cheating on your wife on the honeymoon,” – Tom Pelissero about the Falcons drafting Michael Penix Jr. without giving much of a heads up to Kirk Cousins pic.twitter.com/C0ZIRLFmzL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 26, 2024
For what it’s worth, ESPN’s Stormy Buonantony was of a similar mind with her comparison.
When the Packers drafted Love at #26, they were 15-years into a relationship w/ Rodgers they thought was ending soon.
Old man seeks divorce, starts seeing someone new
The Falcons drafting Penix at #8 a month after signing Cousins is cheating on a new bride during the honeymoon
— Stormy Buonantony (@StormBuonantony) April 26, 2024
In any event, the Cousins-Falcons relationship has gotten off to a rocky start. And there doesn’t seem much the Falcons could do on Days 2 and 3 of the 2024 NFL Draft to gain back any of that trust.
[Awful Announcing on X]
