N/S Forgive me for saying this, but the Falcons 2024 Quarterback move is GENIUS! (4 Viewers)

[raumin]

TBH Atlanta played their cards right. You have to look at this like a card player where the other players (GMs) are trying to figure out your moves.

1. Did Atlanta over pay for Cousins - No, that was his market value. Minnesota offered the same deal but for only 3 years, because they were going to draft a QB. Cousins wanted more security so Atlanta offered 4 years. Atlanta paid what any other team would have to pay to beat Minnesota's offer.

2. Atlanta could have given that money to a journeyman QB, and drafted a QB. No, if the intent is to win the division, by maximizing the offense, a journeyman QB is not beating out Carr, Mayfield, or a bouncing back Young at QB. Plus, you'd be tipping your hat in the draft, and other GMs could then counter.

3. Atlanta could have given that money to a journeyman QB, and drafted a QB. No, once again you lose leverage in the draft for trading up for a QB because teams know you NEED a QB not wanting one. This also motivates lower seeded teams to trade ahead of you. You need ALL teams convinced you're intentions are not to draft a QB

Signing Cousins was the right move for a multiple of reasons. Assuming he comes back healthy it solidifies the most important position for 12-14 years if paired with drafting a promising QB. It also throws the sent off other GMs guessing your moves. If Atlanta didn't sign Cousins every GM would know Atlanta is in the market for a QB in the draft. This would have motivated Min, Vegas, or Denver to move ahead of Atlanta if they valued Penix higher than McCarthy or Nix. Signing Cousins clearly threw the sent off drafting Penix by just how everyone reacted to the pick. You can validate this even more by how fast McCarthy and Nix immediately came off the board soon there after.

I'm not saying singing Cousins was meant to be a smoke screen for drafting Penix, but it was, and if any team wanted to trade back Atlanta could come from the position of not needing to give up as much draft capital because they were perceived with drafting a later round QB, Atlanta was tied to Rattler of all things.

So, in the end the ONLY real risk was money if Cousins couldn't give you 2 solid years and Penix wasn't ready to come in sooner. The good thing is Atlanta front loaded the contract so if Cousins didn't come back to form (which we all saw he didn't), it was structured like a 2 year rental. 3rd year is 10mil in dead money, 4th year is no cap hit if released.

I expected the Falcons to release Cousins after two years regardless, unless Penix was not impressing. So, when the Falcons signed Cousins they knew they were going to eat cap. They just didn't know how much or how soon, but they knew it was unavoidable. The rational was if Penix lives up to the hype he'd be on a rookie deal and all that money going to Cousins was simply the cost of masking your draft strategy and giving Penix time to mature and learn from Cousins while you're racking up division wins.

 

[DSnfla]

You can say whatever you want about our arch rivals in Atlanta, but their decision to play Penix now is brilliant. True, the money spent on the lame duck Cousins is crippling, but they simply had to go out and get a starting caliber quarterback at the time they did.

But the Falcons always knew that Kirk wasn’t the answer. They were looking to the future. Their plan was to have a teachable kid with some raw football skills to eventually take the reins and start building around him. Yes, Cousins wasn’t happy with that draft pick, but the Falcons simply refused to die under the worn out wheels of a has-been, ineffective quarterback.

So what do they have now? They have a young QB who has had some time to work with his players and has some confidence once he got the official call as the new starter. He is perfectly healthy going into the home stretch of the season. And they also have a fairly decent emergency QB if for any reason reason something unforeseen happens to Penix.

Now that they have the division lead, it seems that everything has fallen into place for them to have a chance at some real success going into the playoffs. They had a plan that is working. We did not… and now we’re starting all over again.

I’ll be hoping for the worse for the Falcons from here on out. But they sure made some good decisions.

Wow , after ONE game against maybe the worst team in the league Penix is a savior . SMH

 

[MikeyF]

You can say whatever you want about our arch rivals in Atlanta, but their decision to play Penix now is brilliant. True, the money spent on the lame duck Cousins is crippling, but they simply had to go out and get a starting caliber quarterback at the time they did.

But the Falcons always knew that Kirk wasn’t the answer. They were looking to the future. Their plan was to have a teachable kid with some raw football skills to eventually take the reins and start building around him. Yes, Cousins wasn’t happy with that draft pick, but the Falcons simply refused to die under the worn out wheels of a has-been, ineffective quarterback.

So what do they have now? They have a young QB who has had some time to work with his players and has some confidence once he got the official call as the new starter. He is perfectly healthy going into the home stretch of the season. And they also have a fairly decent emergency QB if for any reason reason something unforeseen happens to Penix.

Now that they have the division lead, it seems that everything has fallen into place for them to have a chance at some real success going into the playoffs. They had a plan that is working. We did not… and now we’re starting all over again.

I’ll be hoping for the worse for the Falcons from here on out. But they sure made some good decisions.

NO...NO...&...NO!

They could have signed multipe QB's at a much better salary cap rate to play until Penix was ready to start but they jumped the gun and signed Cousins waaaay too early.

Stupid...not brilliant!

 

[Treybad]

Penix has what? 1 or 2 games now as a starter..... wait till 2026 if Penix is still the starter then you can use the word genius

 

[perret318]

Hold on. Stop for a second, and breathe. Now, say it with me:

Penix played ONE GAME.
and...
That game was against the NEW YORK GIANTS.

He had a single good game against maybe the worst team in the NFL (outside of us). "Genius" is a bit much to be throwing around after that.

 

[TenTwo]

Dear Baby Jesus please forgive me fort bumping this abomination of a thread...

This is one of those rhetorical parody threads correct?

Everything on the forum is open for interpretation.

In that case, this thread is interpretive dance.

 

[slikk]

I don’t know about genius but it only one game but, it's a move in the right direction for their franchise to continue to build and maybe start winning.

 

[MatthewV]

I said it in real time that it's never a wrong move to get a young franchise QB you believe in with a mid-high pick in draft. The worst case scenario (good backup QB at a too high price) is massively outweighed by the upside (change franchise for 15 years).

It was never that complicated. Everyone wildly overreacted.

 

[Kingston]

Is it brilliant though? They could have not given Cousins that money and still drafted Penix and perhaps spent it on other positions of need.

I don’t understand why more teams don’t do stuff like that. The Redskins did something just like that with Cousins as well. They drafted RG3 at the very top of the draft and got Cousins later in the same draft. Which after RG3 became RG knee turned out to be a genius move.

When you don’t have a QB you don’t have a chance in the NFL. You’re going to struggle just to win games much less ever win a championship. I am not saying it can’t be done but you have to have just about everything go your way and the odds of that are almost nil.

That position is by far the most valuable/important position in football and taken even further all of professional sports. If you don’t have a QB the smart thing to do is zero in on a solution from multiple fronts. The browns draft “the guy” every 3-4 years. They put all their eggs into helping that guy and when he goes bust they tear the whole thing down and start over. It’s why their fans have suffered almost nothing but misery since they rejoined the league. It’s a slow process with one possible fix. Today what you’re seeing more of is a fast track Browns approach where a freshly drafted guy gets a year maybe 2 to prove himself then they get thrown in the trash next one comes in repeat the process. This is also stupid because sometimes QB’s take a ton of time to develop. The guy you throw out goes somewhere else and becomes Sam Darnold.

What the Falcons did was smart. You go out in free agency land the best QB you can get (this is after you stocked your team up with weapons). Then in that same offseason you draft a QB high. You’re paying one of them the other is on a rookie deal. That FA pickup works out cool if not you have the cheep rookie in your back pocket. If you go thru a season and the FA QB falters you can make that rookie the starter especially if he has shown you he can handle it. This also buys the GM and HC more time and most importantly the Falcons now have a disposable asset because for as bad as Cousins failed there are going to be at least a few teams out there that think Cousins is an upgrade for them and the Falcons just didn’t know how to use him. He can be traded away. The one place they did mess up on is giving him a no trade clause.

Considering the worth of the position more teams should consider making similar moves. What if the Browns had drafted 2 QB’s every time they used a high 1 on a QB and maybe mixed in a couple of franchise qb free agency pick ups every couple of seasons? I would bet they would have found a QB by now. The odds of doing so would sure be higher.

As for our plight yep we are paying Carr and we have 2 young guys. Heck they may both develop into stars or both be busts but so far neither has stood out and as a result we should draft another QB this off-season.

The position is too valuable to just stand around waiting for lightning to strike. We need to be running around out there with a lightning rod in hand trying to make lightning strike. Keep going after FA’s and keep drafting them.

 

[Craig Walker]

They were idiots. Plenty of QBs to take if they wanted one. Cousins pulled off a bank heist.

 

[T.Sneden84]

Penix is going to be a problem. I hated the fact that they drafted him. still do.

 

[Bill]

Some of you still ain’t getting it. This thread has nothing to do with what I believe Penix can or will do for the Falcons. When I started this post I had no idea that he had even won a game. The brilliance I’m talking about is not based on what Penix may do for them after his promotion to starting QB.

It’s about the process Atlanta used to insert their new franchise quarterback into the lineup without sacrificing a season. Most teams who are desperate for their next star QB usually sells the farm on draft day to get their guy, and then they make him the starter from Day 1, and force him to learn the ropes at the School of Hard Knocks.

The Falcons had no way of knowing if they would actually get the QB that they wanted in the draft. So they needed a ‘bird in the hand’. That was Cousins. Not a great quarterback and he cost far too much money, but the guy has substantial experience at the position, and they knew that he would likely keep the Falcons heads above the water while they continued to search for their man of the future.

So they get what they wished for in the draft and they begin the season with an experienced QB who they are clearly not married to. And how does that help??? It motivates Cousins to prove how much better he is than the rookie. Did it make Cousins a great QB??? No. But it made the Falcons competitive while their future kid learned the ropes and the playbook.

The bonus for Atlanta is that Cousins played well enough to keep the Falcons in the conversation as a possible division champion. Not a great team, but still very hopeful. Then ‘suddenly’ Penix grows in knowledge of the plays and personnel and the coaches decide that it’s time to put him in as their new starting quarterback.

Some of the bonuses of this decision is that Penix wasn’t forced to be the savior of the franchise from Week 1. He didn’t have to face the growing pains of the position and the possible loss of fan confidence if the team didn’t win right away. It also saved Penix from the possibility of early season injuries that may have forced the team to keep Cousins around as insurance for another year.

But more than anything they have the future franchise QB coming into the starting role with two important factors. He’s healthy and they are the division leaders. Again, this isn’t about whether they win or flop. It’s about having a plan that up to this point has worked out as hoped. And it doesn’t matter if they win the division in the next few weeks or not. Penix gets to come into the season with a team that is in the playoff hunt knowing MORE now about his team and the pro game than he would have if he got the call from the start.

There’s no way of knowing what position the Falcons would be in right now if they had picked up a ‘cheaper’ insurance quarterback. Nor do we know what condition Penix would physically be in if he had played the first dozen or so games of the season. But even if he fails miserably now, he is starting his NFL career in one of the best possible situations for a rookie QB. He’s more familiar with the game, with his teammates, and with the task at hand without any major injuries and having everything to play for!

Like I said… GENIUS!

 

[Loco Hornet Fan]

You can say whatever you want about our arch rivals in Atlanta, but their decision to play Penix now is brilliant. True, the money spent on the lame duck Cousins is crippling, but they simply had to go out and get a starting caliber quarterback at the time they did.

But the Falcons always knew that Kirk wasn’t the answer. They were looking to the future. Their plan was to have a teachable kid with some raw football skills to eventually take the reins and start building around him. Yes, Cousins wasn’t happy with that draft pick, but the Falcons simply refused to die under the worn out wheels of a has-been, ineffective quarterback.

I’ll be hoping for the worse for the Falcons from here on out. But they sure made some good decisions.

I feel like you really skipped over the first line I bolded. The second line I bolded also calls this “genius” decision & strategy into question. If they knew he wasn’t the answer, why sign up to basically pay him $90 million for 14 games?

 

[Bill]

I feel like you really skipped over the first line I bolded. The second line I bolded also calls this “genius” decision & strategy into question. If they knew he wasn’t the answer, why sign up to basically pay him $90 million for 14 games?

Because if they DIDN’T manage to get Penix in the draft, then they are forced to throw away seasons of competitive football by being stuck with playing cheap free agents or late round ineffective quarterbacks like the Saints are doing now.

This is the point that people are missing. Cousins would have been a serviceable option UNTIL finding a quarterback that they were ready to call their new franchise guy. There was no guarantee that they would have gotten their guy in their first draft after signing Cousins. But the odds were pretty good because it was a QB-rich draft class last year.

 

[BooBirdSaint]

Paying 180 million (90 million guaranteed) for a QB who has 4 post season appearances (one win) and was coming off torn Achilles is a fools market.