Throughout the offseason, most expected the Atlanta Falcons to trade Kirk Cousins, yet he remains on the roster. Let’s revisit the circumstances surrounding his benching and examine what the future might hold for the veteran quarterback.
What Is The Falcons’ Plan for Kirk Cousins?
The Falcons have made it clear that Michael Penix Jr. is their starter and quarterback of the future, but Kirk Cousins’ situation is far more complicated. After signing him to a four-year, $180 million deal in 2024, which included a $50 million signing bonus and $100 million guaranteed, Atlanta expected him to be the unquestioned leader of the franchise.
Instead, Cousins was benched last season as Penix, the team’s first-round pick, took over. That move left the Falcons in a difficult position: should they keep Cousins as an expensive backup or look for a way to move on from him altogether?
The Falcons have a few options when it comes to Cousins’ future. Back in April, Falcons assistant general manager Kyle Smith said that Atlanta is constantly having discussions with other teams about Cousins, but added that they will only make a move if it makes sense.
Last year, Cousins appeared on the Netflix series “Quarterback,” where he admitted he felt “misled” by the Falcons after the Penix pick, acknowledging that he probably would have stayed with the Minnesota Vikings if he’d known about Atlanta’s draft plans.
However, the 2025 NFL trade deadline has passed, and Cousins is still with the Falcons. He is expected to finish the season in Atlanta and could get released in the offseason.
The 37-year-old quarterback started one game for the Falcons this year. Unfortunately, he failed to leave a good impression. In the 34-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 7, Cousins threw for 202 yards with no touchdowns and interceptions. As a result, no NFL team approached the Falcons about a potential trade for their veteran quarterback.
Atlanta is 3-5 heading into Week 10, and its offense, led by Penix, is currently ranked 19th in the league according to PFSN’s Offense Impact metric.
Falcons Players’ Fantasy Outlook for Week 10
Here’s what PFSN’s Kyle Soppe wrote on the notable Falcons players’ fantasy outlooks for the Week 10 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts:
Michael Penix Jr.
The knee didn’t look to hamper Michael Penix in a major way last week, and now he’s gone three straight without an interception.
If you want to say that he’s slowly developing at the NFL level, I’ll listen. But he’s been held under 6.5 yards per attempt in four of his past six games and has just three finishes this season better than QB17.
On the bright side, we saw him be rewarded for funneling all of the valuable looks in the direction of Drake London, and that’s Penix’s impact on our game.
Darnell Mooney
The idea of a secondary pass catcher next to Drake London’s tracks, but with only two catches on 70 routes over the past two weeks, suggests a lack of involvement that simply doesn’t happen to a player worthy of our interest.
Darnell Mooney is filling a field-stretching role, and it seems to be more of a decoy mold than anything else. His 15.7-yard aDOT suggests to me that Atlanta is running him in straight lines and hoping that the occasional shot to him opens up everything else.
I’m not sure this is a great plan, but I know it doesn’t do anything for us.
Mooney played every offensive snap last week, and it resulted in next to nothing for us. I’m giving him at least one more week, as this is a game where the expectation is for them to be playing from behind. But his spot at the end of rosters should not be viewed as safe.
Bijan Robinson
It’s a little quirky that Bijan Robinson has gone three straight games without a touch gaining more than 17 yards, but I’m not worried about it.
There’s been no rushing efficiency to speak of over those games, but he’s received 21 targets over that stretch, and for a player this dynamic, that’ll work.
His 17-game pace is for over 87 receptions this season, and when you consider that he is always in scoring position, that level of volume is golden. Without efficiency, he can still give you borderline RB1 production, and if he can get on track on the ground, he’s got as good a shot as anyone to lead the position in scoring.
Robinson is a Tier 1 running back every single week and should allow you to get fantasy points in bunches with your morning coffee this week, even against a Colts run defense that looked good in Pittsburgh last week (23 carries for 38 yards).
Drake London
Drake London outscored every other receiver by 5.7 PPR points last week, and if you flip on the game film, I’m telling you that the performance he put forth Sunday in New England was even more impressive than that.
From sharp routes to high-pointing the ball, he was virtually unstoppable against a defense with a shutdown corner and the ability to make your offense one-dimensional.
London has a quarterback problem, that much we know, but with 10+ targets being funneled his way in four straight, who are we to complain?
His recent run is similar to what Nico Collins has experienced in the past and serves as a nice reminder that he deserves to be considered among the top 10 talents at the position.
Only time will tell if Atlanta can find a quarterback who unlocks consistent Tier 1 production from him: he’s a lineup lock every week, and this matchup abroad doesn’t provide me with a moment of pause.
If you roster London, I think you’ll want to delay your morning plans a bit to watch him get your team off to a good start in Germany.
Kyle Pitts Sr.
Kyle Pitts saw his first end zone target of the season last week and has racked up 26 looks during this three-game skid. Darnell Mooney has been a non-factor since returning, and that, on Sunday at least, meant that Pitts was left handling his duties.
His 11.9-yard aDOT against the Patriots was easily a season high. While that introduces more single-play upside than the shallow target role he’d been occupying prior, it also ramps up the weekly variance, a trade-off I’m not thrilled about making with Michael Penix pulling the trigger.
If Mooney can get going, I think we get stable TE8-12 production from Pitts. That’s what I’m ranking for this week on a fast track in Indy, but last week, despite the seven targets, was more concerning than encouraging for those with exposure to Pitts.