The Atlanta Falcons made one of the more unexpected decisions last offseason when they handed Kirk Cousins a four-year, $180 million deal while he was recovering from injury. At the time, it raised eyebrows, and drafting Michael Penix Jr. in the first round of the 2024 Draft only added to the confusion.
Last season, Cousins struggled as a starter, eventually prompting the team to turn to Penix as their quarterback of the future. That appears to be the plan again for this season. However, this leaves a hefty Cousins contract weighing heavily on the team.
While uncertainty remains about his future, Falcons owner Arthur Blank has offered the first hint of what might unfold moving forward.
Arthur Blank Offers Insight Into the Kirk Cousins Situation
The Kirk Cousins experiment featured some extreme highs and lows during his brief tenure as the Falcons’ starter last season. He had a standout performance with a 509-yard game against Tampa Bay, but also endured a rough four-week stretch where he failed to throw a touchdown and tossed eight interceptions.
Ultimately, this inconsistency led to a midseason change at quarterback, leaving Cousins’ future in Atlanta uncertain. In a recent interview, Falcons owner Arthur Blank discussed his meeting with the veteran quarterback and offered some insight into what transpired.
“We spoke for about an hour. I told Kirk, ‘I’m here to really listen.’ I took five pages of notes, made some comments back, shared some thoughts I had from the franchise’s standpoint. It could not have been a more cordial, a more respectful conversation.”
According to Blank, the former Minnesota Viking and himself found common ground, while understanding each other’s sides of the argument.
“I heard everything that he said, I understand everything he said, and he also understood where we were as a team and as a franchise. So, I think it created clarity about what he hoped for, what his views were, and what happened, and why it happened.”
However, he wasn’t willing to give a direct answer on how the future was going to unfold. “So I think we are in a good place. If he ends up being our backup quarterback, we’ll have the best in the league, which is always a good thing. But if we end up making a different decision, then we’ll move on.”
Falcons owner Arthur Blank explains where things stand between QB Kirk Cousins and the team. Good stuff from the NFL League meetings. From The Insiders on NFL Network. pic.twitter.com/klt1bCyrYq
— Steve Wyche (@wyche89) April 2, 2025
However, even with the doubt clouding Cousins’ future, Blank couldn’t help but shower him with compliments. “I just want to reinforce this – He could not have been more of a gentleman – He’s got a great heart, great spirit, he bleeds the NFL, he’s great with teammates, great with fans, very spiritual guy, great family guy.”
When prodded about where Cousins stood with the team, Blank revealed, “He made it clear that in his best interests, it would be to have an opportunity to test free agency.” However, he also pointed to the veteran understanding Atlanta’s side of things and how the contract worked.
Ultimately, his parting message was simple,”We’ll both end up doing the right thing for the right reasons and we’ll be fine.”