Kirk Cousins’ struggles are nearing a boiling point as the Falcons squeaked past the lowly Raiders on “Monday Night Football.”
Cousins, 36, looked like a shell of his gunslinging self, going 11 for 17 for just 112 yards with one touchdown and an interception in the 15-9 victory, with head coach Raheem Morris calling out the veteran after the game.
“He’s got to play better and obviously, you got to go back, you got to get to look at everything,” the Falcons’ first-year head coach told reporters. “But he wants to play better. He’s got to play better. We’ve got to find a way to get him to play better.”w
Cousins has thrown seven interceptions in his last three games, the second most in the NFL behind only Jameis Winston (eight), who the Browns benched on Sunday.
Despite the scathing assessment of his current starting quarterback, Morris stopped short of saying Cousins was in danger of losing his job to rookie Michael Penix Jr., whom Atlanta stunningly selected eighth overall out of Washington in this year’s NFL draft.
When asked whether Penix would be considered to start Week 16 against the Giants, Morris offered a cryptic response.
“We’ve got everybody on our roster for a reason, we’ve got so much to get better at,” Morris said. “Those things will always be discussed, that’s the nature of the beast in football. Our mentality is to find a way to win the next game.”
Cousins has the sixth-worst quarterback rating in the NFL since Week 8 and leads the NFL in interceptions thrown.
Cousins is in the first year of a four-year, $180 million contract that includes a $100 million guarantee.
He agreed with Morris’ comments after Monday’s game.
“I think the last few weeks I would say I need to play better,” Cousins said. “Raheem says it, but it’s stating the obvious, and every week you kind of go through your process and you plan to go out there and play the very best you can. And so, this week will be no different.”
The decision to bench Cousins is complicated as they’d be throwing Penix right into a playoff race as they are one game behind the Buccaneers in the NFC South and own the tiebreaker.
In theory, Atlanta could rid itself of the back half of that deal after year two, thanks to the structure of the deal.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport previously reported that Falcons brass believed Cousins would bounce back from the poor performances, but that patience appears to be running thin if you go by Morris’ most recent comments.
“They do believe he will bounce back, they believe he’ll be resilient,” Rapoport said of the Falcons and Cousins. “They want to rally around Cousins.”
Atlanta entered the 2024 season with Super Bowl aspirations after bringing in Cousins, but he hasn’t looked the same since returning from a torn Achilles he suffered last year while with the Vikings.
