Kirk Cousins Has Strong 5-Word Message for Atlanta Falcons After Michael Penix Pick

Tuesday, Cousins broke his silence on his likely successor being chosen in the draft before he even took a snap in a Falcons uniform.

“I don’t deal in hypotheticals,” Cousins said, when asked if he would have signed in Atlanta had he known that the Falcons planned on taking a quarterback in the first round of the draft.

Cousins put pen to paper on a $180 million deal with the Falcons, that includes $100 million fully guaranteed as well as a $50 million signing bonus, over the life of the four-year pact.

In all likelihood though, Penix Jr. will take the field long before Cousins’ deal is up.

Kirk Cousins Breaks Silence on Atlanta Falcons Selecting Michael Penix Jr.

During a recent appearance on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast, Cousins addressed the Penix Jr. selection head-on.

“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. “So let’s deal in reality and recognize that fact, and then be a steward, not an owner. So I just believe that I gotta 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 gotta steward this and just kinda do what I’ve always done as a player and let the chips fall where they may.”

During the conversation, Cousins was asked his immediate reaction to the news, and recalled an anecdote from when the Vikings considered taking a quarterback high. Multiple reports suggest the Falcons extended no such courtesy this time around.

“Vikings, three years ago,” Cousins explained. “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 and Klint Kubiak calls me, our OC,” Cousins recalled. “And he says, ‘Just wanna give you a heads up, we may draft a quarterback tonight.’ I said, ‘OK.’

“So I understood that, for a while, teams are always thinking about succession plans or always thinking about that. They didn’t end up drafting one that year, but you’re aware that this is a possible direction it could go. My point is this isn’t like a foreign concept. There’s an awareness that this is the NFL, anything can happen…”