The Falcons are now giving some insight into their surprise 2024 NFL Draft decision.
Atlanta, already having inked Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract this offseason, added Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 overall pick on Thursday night.
With Cousins reportedly blindsided by the decision, Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot gave some reasoning about what factored into the choice to bring in the highly touted lefty quarterback.
Essentially, according to the Falcons exec, it boiled down to bringing in what Atlanta viewed as the best player available at that point in the draft.
He did reiterate, however, that Cousins is still the starter going forward this season.
“When you can add a high-caliber player like that with his intangibles, those tools — he’s a winner. Very, very excited. You don’t pass up that opportunity,” Fontenot told reporters during a press conference. “Kirk Cousins is our quarterback. We’re very excited about Kirk, we’re very excited about our team. Michael Penix is, we’re talking about the future. The draft is — you look at the future and you look at big picture.
“But we’re very excited about that quarterback room. And again, Kirk is our quarterback, but adding Michael Penix is thinking about the future.”
Fontenot added that the team expects to still win a lot of games with Cousins, who left the Vikings to join the AFC South squad, and that the team knows it wasn’t going to “please everybody” with the draft pick.
The Falcons felt that adding a major playmaker like Penix was a no-brainer, and even if he has to sit for a few seasons, that would not deter the team from adding a quarterback of his caliber.
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“If you believe in a quarterback, you have to take him,” Fontenot told reporters. “And if he sits for four or five years, that’s a great problem to have because we’re doing so well at that position. So, it’s as simple as, if you see a guy you believe in at that position, you have to take him.”
Cousins, according to multiple reports, was given little notice about the move to pick, with The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reporting that the veteran was “a bit stunned.”
The Michigan State product who spent his last six years in Minnesota is guaranteed $100 million with his Falcons contract.
Raheem Morris, the team’s new head coach after Arthur Smith was fired, said he wouldn’t delve into his interaction with Cousins.
“It’s never a right time to talk to a quarterback about those things,” Morris said Thursday night.
Now, Atlanta has a four-time Pro Bowler to go along with the 2023 Heisman Trophy runner-up.
