Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins said Tuesday for the first time that health did impact his play in the second half of the 2024 season.
Cousins along with head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot were adamant during the season that the quarterback’s physical status was not the reason behind the play that eventually led to him being benched in favor of rookie Michael Penix Jr. with three games remaining. However, during an interview with “Good Morning Football” on the NFL Network Tuesday, he said he suffered a shoulder injury in Week 10 against the Saints and never returned to full strength afterward.
“Got hit pretty good in my right shoulder and elbow and from there it was kind of something I was working through,” he said. “Just never really could get it where I wanted it. Now that the season is over, kind of have the time and energy to say, ‘OK, let’s get the shoulder back, let’s get the elbow back.’ If we can do that, feel like I’ve got a new life ahead of me in pro football.”
Cousins also said that while his Achilles tendon tear was fully healed, he’s unsure if his right ankle ever returned to full strength after his rehabilitation. He added “that really didn’t affect me too much,” putting more emphasis on the impact of the shoulder injury.
The Falcons were 6-3 and leading the NFC South by two games heading into that Week 10 game against New Orleans. On top of that, they had beaten the Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice, so they controlled the tiebreak over their division rivals. Cousins was seventh in expected points added per dropback (.15) and tied for fourth in passing touchdowns (17) at the time. The Saints game started a five-game slide in which he threw nine interceptions and one touchdown pass and the Falcons gave up the division lead to Tampa Bay.
Cousins was on the injury report after the Saints game, listed as a limited practice participant with shoulder and elbow injuries on Wednesday and a full participant on Thursday and Friday. He was never listed on the injury report again, and Cousins and Morris maintained throughout that stretch that he was healthy. Fontenot agreed after the season.
“He was healthy. It was just the play just wasn’t there,” Fontenot said. “It just dropped to the point where we had to make a change. Nobody is happy about that. We’re all disappointed.”
The Falcons plan to move forward with Penix as the starting quarterback and have said they would be open to Cousins returning as the backup. Cousins sounded Friday like a player who wasn’t ready to accept that role.
“I definitely feel like I still have a lot of good football left in me,” he said. “Time will tell. We’ll get to March and know a lot more. The focus … is getting healthy. I’m no good to the Falcons, I’m no good to the team if I’m not feeling really good. That’s where my focus has been through January and February … to get my body feeling really good.”
