How Falcons’ Raheem Morris will fare with Kirk Cousins at helm | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

How Falcons’ Raheem Morris will fare with Kirk Cousins at helm | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

Things have gone from bad to worse for the Atlanta Falcons. They’re three and seven and excuse me, horribly inconsistent. Michael Pennix Jr. aggravated a bone bruise in his left knee during Sunday’s overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers. There is concern that Pennix could miss the rest of the season. He had two ACL tears in his right knee in college. This is a left knee issue. Reportedly, the ACL is impacted. Not good. Not good for the Falcons. They do have Kirk Cousins. They didn’t trade him. It never materialized. There was never even any serious discussion that anyone was going to trade for Kirk Cousins. They’re paying him 90 million between last year and this year and they owe him another 10 million next year. Looks like he’ll be the guy the rest of the way. And you know, I think when you look at all the good teams in the NFC, I think three and seven, if you just run the table, there’s no guarantee you’re getting in. They’ve got no margin for error if they want to have a chance to get to the postseason. It just feels like it feels like the season’s lost for the Falcons. Yeah. And I think the the games we’ve watched of this team like there it seems like the Buffalo Bills Monday night game, we were like, okay, like they finally turned the corner and then you’re reminded of the Carolina Panthers game where they just lag the lay the egg. Then they’re up late in the game last week to Carolina again and they they lose. the team is just so inconsistent that you just have no idea what you’re going to get. And I think the hard thing for Raheem Morris now is like I think people look at the Falcons and they’re like, “Okay, they got Jeff Albert, their defense looked like it got better. They draft these two first round picks up front. They’re rushing the passer better. Okay, check. The defense has gotten better.” Then you look at the offense and you’re like, man, you got you got Bjan or Bejian Robinson. You got Drake London, you got like you got some weapons there. Like why can’t this team just be somewhat competitive? like how are the Carolina Panthers in position to compete with the Tampa Bay Bucks for this division and the Falcons are I mean like you just said it feels like they have no shot and I I get nervous Raheem Morris and now with you know Pennix possibly be done for the year even if you kind of turn it around and Kurt Cousins goes and he plays well does does Arthur Blank walk away from the season encouraged going forward that Kurt Cousins came in and you were able to maybe win you know four or five games at the end of the year and and make it a little bit better, but that wasn’t the guy that’s going to be the core. Like I I just get worried. It just it’s not a good look. And I think when you talk about teams being inconsistent on how they show up, a lot of that blame goes back to the head coach. And I I just I get nervous for him. um going into the end of this season, like you just said, there’s a bunch of teams that depending on how they play, you could probably circle Atlanta and put them at the top of that list uh for teams that need to play well for for their head coach to stay. Well, and when we think back to what happened in the 2024 off seasonason, they make the big investment in Kirk Cousins and it allowed them to hide their intention to potentially draft Michael Penn Jr., which they did with the eighth overall pick and it stunned everyone and it was heavily criticized. You make a massive investment. It wasn’t a placeholder quarterback and then they say, “Oh, well Kirk’s going to be the quarterback for three, four, maybe five years and we never we never believed that.” And then it was after 14 regular season games last year that Cousins was benched for Penn and they’d been looking for a way to offload that contract ever since. So, they have spent they’ve committed to $100 million of Arthur Blank’s money and the guy that they drafted has not worked out. I remember after they beat the Bills on that Monday night game, Michael Pennix Jr. said, “We’ve arrived.” And they proceeded to go the other direction since then. It just isn’t working. And actually, Cousins playing down the stretch could make it worse because it could cause Arthur Blank to say, “Why did we ever sign this guy in the first place?” You know, Cousins is a guy who musters a lot of his arm strength from the lower half of his body. It’s not all flick of the wrist Aaron Rogers stuff and that base was messed up after he tore the Achilles tendon a couple of years ago and he’s never really gotten it back. And when you watch him play now, he’s not the guy that he used to be. And that may make ownership say we re we we never should have signed him and maybe we never should have drafted Michael Penn with the twice torn ACL. When something like like this happens and a guy suffers a knee injury, I start hearing from people who are like, “Yeah, that’s why we didn’t have him on our board, like he had too many injuries in college.” It’s a tough, brutal, unforgiving sport. But it’s one of the reasons why they bring everyone to Indianapolis and poke and prod them and study the medical records. They’re trying to make a projection as to whether or not this person’s body is suited to the physical demands of playing professional football. And if it just isn’t and you use the eighth overall pick on him, that’s the kind of thing that causes owners to clean house. And I I feel like and I really like both Raheem Morris and Terry Fontnau, but they have to know. They have to know that, you know, it could be they they call it Black Monday. Hell, guys get fired the day of their I mean, we saw with Draw Mayo last year was in basically the locker room after the game. like it happens quickly and with more teams already having vacancies like the Giants and the Titans and there may be more that creates an urgency to move even faster because those other teams are out there doing their due diligence doing their search already. If you wait until the end of the season, you’re behind the teams that didn’t wait until the end of the season. So, I it’s just this isn’t going to end well for the Falcons. And I have a feeling it’s not going to end well for the head coach of the GM. And I think I think they’re smart enough to realize it. Yeah. And it’s an interesting thing this year because I think the the overwhelming feeling is these offensive-minded coaches, especially like in Atlanta where you have this young quarterback. I don’t know and and you know I think you have a better pulse on this of who are the names of like these young offensive you know whether it’s coordinators or young offensive staff guys that teams are just like man I s like this the Ben Johnson’s of the world like because you look at Houston and Demetico Ryan I think is a really good head coach but the problem continues to be all right what’s the structure of the offense how are they going to figure out the offense you look at Mike Vrabel very unique situation he got an offensive coordinator that fell into what you just said, a guy who got two chances to be a head coach and it didn’t work out. So now it’s a good chance he’s probably going to remain an offensive coordinator. So it’s set. But I look at, you know, Jeff Hafley and I look at Campanelli, names that have come up uh for the Giants and different those are all defensive-minded guys. Raheem Morris is a defensive-minded guy. The offense has struggled. I just wonder like who are those names that teams aren’t really rushing to get a head start? There is there is no Ben Johnson this year. And I think it makes teams more compelled to look at other guys who have head coaching experience. And the one factor, I know we have to take a break, but the one factor that I continue to harp on this time of year that teams don’t explore as much as they should, trying to identify other current head coaches whose teams may welcome a phone call and an opportunity to get some compensation and move on from a guy that they’re already thinking about moving on from. Hi, it’s Mike Florio. Thanks for watching PFT on YouTube. Hit subscribe for the latest news and analysis from Pro Football

Mike Florio and Devin McCourty spell out how the Falcons are inconsistent in how they show up, where they stand with Michael Penix Jr, how they’ll fare with Kirk Cousins and what lies ahead for Raheem Morris. #NBCSports #NFL #ProFootballTalk
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How Falcons’ Raheem Morris will fare with Kirk Cousins at helm | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC
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