Season 1 of Netflix’s Quarterback gave us a whole new look at Kirk Cousins and his life. After that gutting playoff loss to the Giants, the cameras followed him home, and it was just Cousins, sitting with his son, reading a bedtime story. Then he said it, almost under his breath: “It doesn’t feel like it should be over.” To get back the respect, Cousins stood up once again, prepping himself for another season. But when the Falcons gave the QB1 spot to Michael Penix Jr. this year? It seems it’s officially over.

Fast forward to 2025, Kirk Cousins’ story has only gotten messier. A tough season in Atlanta, a very public benching, and just when it felt like the noise might finally die down… boom. A former Super Bowl champ throws gas on the fire. 2009 Super Bowl winner Chase Daniel went full stir-the-pot mode on X after catching up on the first episode of Quarterback Season 1. He questioned whether Cousins could really handle the complexity of the Falcons’ offense.

“Finally getting caught up on Quarterback. One thing abundantly clear in the 1st episode is how entirely overwhelmed Kirk Cousins was with the pre-snap procedure & motions in the Atlanta offense last year,” he wrote on X. Honestly? You could see it. He just didn’t look comfortable. Pre-snap, he was all over the place: slow on motion reads, unsure on protections, hesitant to pull the trigger on audibles. And yeah, people noticed. Of course they did.

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And looking back at game footage from last season? It just underscored that narrative. Look at week 1 against the Steelers last year. Only one under-center snap, zero play-action calls, and not a single designed rollout. All the stuff that was bread and butter for him? Gone. It didn’t feel like Kirk Cousins’ football… it felt like he was trying to play someone else’s game.

According to PFF, Cousins averaged just 3.1 yards of movement per dropback. Career low for him. Basically, the pocket turned into a no-fly zone. No movement, no magic, just a sitting duck back there. The result? Atlanta’s offense got stuck in a one-track rhythm. It was all shotgun and pistol, no motion, no play-action.

And even after that week 5 explosion (509 yards and four touchdowns), there were some film nerds out there, saying the whole thing looked wildly unsustainable. And they weren’t wrong. In the weeks that followed? Four picks, zero touchdowns across five starts. By Week 16, the Falcons made the call: Penix on, Cousins off. And they made it official this summer. And it took a while, but Falcons GM Terry Fontenot finally broke the silence on this entire thing.

Terry Fontenot stays diplomatic about the Kirk Cousins dilemma

Falcons GM Terry Fontenot has been walking a tightrope all offseason. He’s been trying to balance loyalty, public perception, and the cold, hard math of NFL contracts. When asked if the team planned to move on from Kirk Cousins after that rocky 2024, he was…diplomatic.

“We are very comfortable moving forward with (Cousins) as the backup,” he said. “Kirk is a great man, he’s been great support for Mike [Morris], a great teammate… we are very comfortable moving forward with him as the backup,” he added. Oh, and he also shared his views on Cousins being the highest-paid backup QB of all time. “When you do that, you expect high-level play from the position for two seasons. We understand that didn’t happen.”

Even after handing the reins to rookie star Michael Penix Jr., the Falcons didn’t pull the trigger on cutting Cousins. No, not even with a big roster bonus deadline coming up in March. And when the rumours started swirling around, Fontenot shut it down quickly. He implied that the idea of cutting Cousins was “not valid.” Translation? Not happening. (At least not yet.)

It’s clear that he’s just doubling down on his ideas that have been in place since the combine back in April. “If something comes to us… that makes sense… we’re gonna be aggressive… but if it’s not going to ultimately help this team… We’ll ask, Is it best for the Falcons?” Safe to say, his stance hasn’t really changed since then.

Fontenot also didn’t shy away from the money talk. Cousins is locked in for $27.5 million guaranteed in 2025, with a cap hit that eats up nearly 14% (highest in the league, by the way). So yeah, financially, it’s a bit of a mess. At this point, the Falcons are basically treating it like a sunk cost… unless someone steps up with a trade that helps clear the books. But they’ve been clear about one thing: if they have to ride it out, they will.