Falcons owner contradicts Kirk Cousins' initial reaction to Michael Penix Jr. pick

Arthur Blank is the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, Raheem Morris is their new head coach, Kirk Cousins is their new franchise quarterback and rookie Michael Penix Jr. is their quarterback of the future. Got it? Good! Now that we have a few things figured out when it comes to this particular NFC South franchise, we now have to unpack what all Blank told D. Orlando Ledbetter over at the AJC...

In his conversation with Ledbetter, Blank appeared to make it perfectly clear when it came to telling Cousins that even if he signed with the Falcons that Atlanta was likely going to draft a quarterback. Atlanta gave Cousins a sweet four-year contract back in March, only to take the former Washington Huskies star Penix with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. People were shocked by the pick.

Blank then opined to Ledbetter about how Cousins is the guy, but Penix is also the team's future.

"Kirk Cousins is our franchise quarterback, is our starting quarterback and he seems to be doing great from a medical standpoint. His attitude, his leadership, culturally, personally, with our players, with the coaching staff, has been nothing short of outstanding. So, we couldn't be happier with that situation."

Blank then noted that it was always the Falcons' thought to have a succession plan at quarterback.

"We've been through a situation, post-Matt Ryan, when we're seeing that movie when we didn't have a franchise quarterback. We didn't want to repeat that again. I mean, I certainly didn't. I'm super sensitive to all forms of succession planning. After 60-odd years of business, in any business, that's critical. At the key position, the quarterback position in the NFL, that's very important. So, just listening to our coaching staff and our personnel department, they really made the decision. Michael was going to be available at No. 8. They saw an extraordinary talent."

This is congruent with everything I have heard from the team since Morris took over as head coach. Back when he was interviewing for the job ahead of the 2021 NFL season that ultimately went to former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, Morris supposedly pounded his fists on the table, clamoring that Atlanta needed a plan for life beyond Matt Ryan. Atlanta did not have one...

The front office played flirt with Deshaun Watson, got burnt and ended up with one Marcus Mariota.

Atlanta saying it was always forthcoming with Cousins about a succession plan runs counter to this.

It may end up being more in the vein of Cousins being "shocked" and "disappointed" that it happened, but he has been in the league long enough to know the NFL stands for Not For Long. Earlier this week, he went on Scoop City over at The Athletic. He told Chase Daniel that the Minnesota Vikings wanted to give him a series of one-year deals, and that was not going to fly with the franchise player.

No matter how you view this, I find it all to be water under the bridge. The Falcons have games to win.

Arthur Blank contradicts what Kirk Cousins said about Falcons' QB plans

What I think this all boils down to is this. Cousins can still play, and probably play at a high level. However, I think with him being on the wrong side of 35 and coming off the first major injury of his career, every team that was interested in signing him was going to have some level of security to hedge their bets. Therefore, Atlanta looks smart in taking Penix when they did at the end of April.

Cousins was right to ask for a multi-year deal and one final big pay day. He is a perennial Pro Bowler. If he plays like we all think he can, he might force his way into the conversation of being a Pro Football Hall of Famer. His numbers are great, but he needs a big playoff run or two to push him over the top from being forever in the Hall of Very Good. I think that Atlanta is the place it can all happen for him.

The biggest takeaway I have from all this is everybody in the Falcons organization seems to be pulling in the same direction for once. There seems to be a similar, unified message akin to the Brotherhood era of Falcons football under Dan Quinn, shortly before it hit the fan in Houston vs. New England... I also think Cousins will be a good sport about having Penix in the quarterback room. He's been there...

This season of Falcons football should be viewed as playoffs or bust, so Cousins needs to be great.