Why Kirk Cousins felt ‘misled' by the Falcons and played through injury in Netflix series
Cousins, the Atlanta Falcons' savior-turned-backup, stars in the second season of 'Quarterback,' Netflix's documentary series highlighting the sport's most glamorous position. The new season debuted on Tuesday.
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It is the second time Cousins has appeared in the show, and the second time a Falcons quarterback has been featured. Cousins was part of the debut season in 2023 along with then-Atlanta quarterback Marcus Mariota. Mariota and Cousins were both benched by the Falcons in their featured seasons, so don't expect to see Michael Penix Jr. on the next season of 'Quarterback.'
In fact, the series might be gaining a reputation around the league thanks to a track record that rivals the Madden video game cover curse. In Season 1, the three subjects were Cousins, Mariota and Patrick Mahomes. Cousins tore his Achilles tendon early in the season and Mariota was benched, though Mahomes and the Chiefs went on to win a second straight Super Bowl. In Season 2, Cousins is joined by the Bengals' Joe Burrow, who missed the playoffs despite a prolific passing season (and had his home burglarized), and the Lions' Jared Goff, who suffered a shocking first-round playoff loss. Falcons fans are well aware of how Cousins' story played out.
It started in storybook fashion, of course. Cousins, who had spent six years in Washington and six more in Minnesota trying to get those teams to fully embrace him, seemed finally to have found a partner willing to commit.
Any excuse to post the KhaDarel Hodge walk-offhttps://t.co/4yVnQQsWkZ pic.twitter.com/vo4KH4ItNK
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) March 17, 2025
The Falcons offered a four-year deal that guaranteed $90 million (and has already paid out $100 million) and was potentially worth $180 million, the largest total-value free-agency deal in league history. It seemed like a great fit. Atlanta is the sports city that has always just wanted to be loved, and Cousins was more than willing to wrap his arms around it.
In his introductory news conference, Cousins talked about being married and having a child born in the city, his father-in-law's Falcons fandom, his native's knowledge of the city's dreadful traffic and the laser show at Stone Mountain. He was all in, and he thought the team was, too.
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But the Falcons were batting their eyes at someone else within six weeks. The new season of 'Quarterback' doesn't offer many insights beyond what Cousins already has said publicly, but this comment from Cousins in Episode 1 about the drafting of Penix had a sharp end to it: 'Was pretty surprised when the draft happened, wasn't expecting us to take a quarterback so high. At the time, it felt like I had been a little bit misled or certainly if I had had the information around free agency, it would have affected my decision. I had no reason to leave Minnesota, as much as we loved it there, if both teams were drafting a quarterback high.'
Still, the honeymoon phase in Atlanta was fun, which 'Quarterback' chronicles. In Episodes 3 and 4, we get to relive the city's joy at the Falcons' 6-3 start, 'Swag Surfin'' and 'Take Over Your Trap,' hear head coach Raheem Morris telling Cousins 'I love you, I love you' on the field after the overtime touchdown pass to KhaDarel Hodge, and see Cousins, his brother and two longtime friends belting out Cher songs while waiting in the Cookout drive-through line after a win over the Cowboys.
Then the wheels — and the shoulder and the elbow — fell off. The end of Episode 4 is when the ominous music kicks in, and it comes when Cousins is sacked by Saints defensive end Payton Turner in Week 10.
'Immediately, my elbow lit up, and I knew I had irritated something. Had a shooting pain through the inside of my elbow,' Cousins told Netflix, adding, 'My shoulder started to really throb, so I knew right away, OK this is a little more serious. Once I lost my shoulder and elbow, I didn't have many more things to lean on to get the power I needed. It's hard looking back to not view it as things certainly turned in that moment because in a way they did.'
At the time, Cousins and the team downplayed the idea of an injury, even as that game kicked off a five-game skid that included nine Cousins interceptions and four Falcons losses. Cousins called his appearance on the injury report the following week 'a clerical error.'
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'If I was going to be on the injury report every time I didn't feel 100 percent, I would have been on the injury report every week of my entire career, including college,' he told Netflix. 'The way I viewed it is if I took every single rep in practice, then I'm a full participant. I'm not basing it off the pain I feel because I feel pain every week.'
There's a compelling argument to be made that Cousins should have been more open with his employers about his physical condition and an equally compelling argument that his employers should have pressed him more on the matter, but 'Quarterback' doesn't get too deep in those waters.
'Should I have sat out? Should I have done something different in my rehab? You know, you have all those questions,' Cousins said. 'With the information I had at the time, I made the best decision, but you also know if you sit down Week 10 and take two or three weeks to let it heal, you may never get your job back. I remember reading Drew Brees' book back in 2010, how he made the point that he tried to never let his backup see the field, even if the guy was no threat. He just felt like you should never do that. That was something I always was aware of.'
The show does, though, walk Cousins and his family slowly through the season's difficult end.
Again, there is no tragedy here. Cousins has been paid $294.2 million to play professional football, more than all but five other players in history, for a career that includes one playoff win. He and agent Mike McCartney are first-ballot contract negotiation Hall of Famers. He has a happy and healthy family, which the series chronicles. There is no reason at all to feel sorry for him, but watching Julie Cousins recount the night her husband lost his starting job isn't easy.
Morris called Cousins at home the Tuesday night after Atlanta's Week 15 win over the Raiders, his wife said.
'He knew what that meant and so did I,' Julie Cousins said.
Throughout his career, and especially during his time in Atlanta, Cousins has been willing to open up an informational vein and be vulnerable in a way most of the league's stars are not.
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He's an unironically abashed fan of virtually the entire Disney movie catalog and a lover of a good story. He knows, it seems, the type of details that make those stories good, and he often offers up honest and intimate details to the storytellers that circle the NFL.
Julie Cousins shows the same traits in Episode 7 as she recounts the night Cousins was benched.
'He was gone for about an hour, and that was a really sad time,' she said. 'My kids were playing, and I was crying. They were like, 'What's wrong? Is he not on the team anymore?' He came back and sat in the garage. When I went out there, he was calling Michael, which I thought was really cool, like, 'Who does that?''
The couple then explained to their two young sons that 'Mr. Michael is going to be the quarterback now,' Julie Cousins said.
Overall, there isn't much new in 'Quarterback,' but it is a good reminder of how much fun it might have been for both sides if things had worked out differently.
The series for Cousins wraps with the quarterback acknowledging his future is murky but underlining his belief that his story is not finished.
'I want to finish with a world championship,' he said. 'I'm going to have a fire in my tank to finish strong, wherever this thing goes.'
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