If you are a Minnesota Vikings fan today, you probably should be more happy than sad seeing Kirk Cousins flying south to Atlanta. Cousins will be the man behind center for the Atlanta Falcons next season. Cousins leaves Minnesota after six seasons as Captain of the Vikings ship. Cousins at 35 years old gets a 4 year deal with the Vikings for 180 million of which the 12 year veteran of the NFL will get 50 million signing bonus to soar with the Falcons. The Falcons may now be the team in the worst division of the NFL, the NFC South that has the best quarterback.

Last year, Kirk Cousins managed to play 8 games in his final year in Minnesota as he tore his achilles in week 8. Cousins had the Vikings at 4-4 at the time and was having a fine season after the poor start out of the gate. Cousins was completing 69.5% of his passes & had 18 touchdown passes with only 5 interceptions. Cousins’ career started with the Washington Redskins where he played his first six seasons in the nation’s capital. He arrived in Minnesota in the 2018 season and played six seasons. Behind center for the Vikings, Cousins’ record was 50-37-1. Cousins only managed to get the Vikings to 3 playoff games won and he went 1-2 in the post-season in a Vikings uniform. Cousins is 1-4 in his career in the post-season where he lost his first two playoff games in a Redskins uniform. Cousins’ career record as a starter is 76-67-2 and has thrown 270 career touchdown passes with 110 interceptions. He is a 4-x Pro Bowler.

The Atlanta Falcons last playoff appearance came in 2017 where they lost in the division round. The Falcons offense was very one-dimensional last year with Desmond Ridder taking most of the snaps. The Falcons were still in the mix of things in the crappy division that features the Saints, Buccaneers, and the Panthers. The Falcons had a strong running game with a pretty good defense that kept them in the thick of things most of the year. The Falcons tried to save their season inserting another X-Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke down the stretch to help juice up the passing game, but the Buccaneers prevailed as the South champs. The team fired their head coach Arthur Smith this off-season. They replaced him with the LA Rams defensive coach Raheem Morris. Morris a few seasons back was the interim head coach of the Falcons when they fired Dan Quinn. Morris went 4-7 as the Falcons played well for him. In the end, he did not get the head coaching job until this off-season as he comes back to Atlanta. Obviously Morris and the front office wanted to fix the quarterback situation as their first priority. Cousins is their answer.

Kirk Cousins in Minnesota had the best receiver in the NFC in Justin Jefferson the last few seasons. Some will say Jefferson may be the best receiver in the game. Cousins had a top tight end in TJ Hockenson and a nice season from rookie wide receiver in Jordan Addison. Now Cousins will have a better back field in hot Atlanta with Bijan Robinson lining up in the back field. The Falcons wide receiver second year man Drake London put up great numbers with a bad quarterback play as he had 69 catches for 905 yards with two touchdowns. Kyle Pitts is no slouch at the tight end position for the Falcons as his numbers will surge with Cousins behind center. Cousins is a middle of the road quarterback in the NFL. You could say that about Matthew Stafford as he was inserted into the Rams quarterback position which resulted in a Superbowl ring. Cousins is like that great fantasy quarterback that can get you a ton of points because his teams can play from behind and have to pass the ball. How will he respond after his injury he suffered last year? Is he better than Bryce Young of the Panthers. Yes. I think I’d rather Cousins than Derek Carr of the Saints. I may give Baker Mayfield the edge in Tampa Bay over Cousins. Obviously the Falcons can add more pieces around Cousins. Where will Cousins get you a first round loss or a Superbowl? I think Vikings fans want something more than a one and done in the playoffs. Other teams like Atlanta may like to get to the post-season. The age of 35 scares me. Sure Joe Flacco played well in regular season for the Browns and he’s older than Cousins. Flacco did not play well in the playoff game in the loss to the Texans. If you are a wide receiver in Atlanta, you’re loving this move bringing in Cousins. Would Atlanta have been better off with a guy like Justin Fields? A younger guy with a young Falcons team? We will see how this will unfold when the season starts. We know one of the biggest dominoes in the free agent market at the quarterback position comes off the board.