Wednesday night, New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye took part in an NFL event that saw him square off with other NFL players, including Micah Parsons, Chris Olave, and Falcons quarterback, Kirk Cousins.
The four took part in a ping pong tournament along with some notable internet personalities, which was part of a promotion with Proctor and Gamble and Lowes.
Maye helped lead the way to a victory in the 2-on-2 portion of the tournament, and also won the tournament outright after beating both Parsons and Cousins en-route to the title. However, there was a notable instance with Cousins that now has people talking.
The veteran quarterback arrived wearing a gray Atlanta Falcons t-shirt, but partway through, he seemed to pick up his phone, and after looking at it, he disappeared for a couple of minutes before returning wearing a plain black t-shirt.
In a relationship that already seemed frayed, it’s just another sign that all is not well between the two sides. It’s also yet another reason to feel like his future in Atlanta may be coming to an end.
It started last April when, after signing Cousins to a massive deal in free agency last offseason, the Falcons went ahead and also drafted Michael Penix Jr. in the first round with the 8th overall pick. Reports after the fact indicated Cousins wasn’t thrilled with the selection, which seemed to start that relationship off on a bad note.
Things got off to a decent start, but that didn’t last. After getting them off to a 6-3 record, Cousins struggled down the stretch last season, with things starting to fall apart after Week 10. Cousins said this week that a shoulder injury was the issue, which played a role in his drop off in play that ultimately saw him benched in favor of Penix Jr.
“Got hit pretty good in my right shoulder and elbow and from there it was kind of something I was working through,” Cousins told Good Morning Football on Tuesday via Josh Kendall of The Athletic. “Just never really could get it where I wanted it. Now that the season is over, kind of have the time and energy to say, ‘OK, let’s get the shoulder back, let’s get the elbow back.’ If we can do that, feel like I’ve got a new life ahead of me in pro football.”
That goes against what Falcons GM Terry Fontenot had been adamant about, claiming Cousins was healthy but that “the play just wasn’t there.” That ultimately led to the change being made.
Schefter: A Split Appears to Be Coming
How life after Cousins might go moving forward is hard not to wonder about. Penix had his moments, but he’s certainly a big question mark after he completed just 58.1% of his throws while throwing three touchdowns and three interceptions and finishing 1-2 during the final three games.
As for Cousins, it sounds like he’s played his final game with the Falcons. ESPN’s Adam Schefter talked about the embattled quarterback’s situation on Wednesday, and said that he expects the Falcons to release him, comparing the situation to what played out in Denver with Russell Wilson.
“The Falcons have been adamant that they’re open to keeping him as the back-up quarterback and paying him $40 million,” said Schefter. “But how many times in this league, when we follow the money, do we hear about a quarterback making $40 million as the number two? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“Again, if they move on from him, the post-June 1 designation would spread the dead cap money over two years. So it would be $40 million this year, $25 million next year. And the Falcons said they don’t know about trading him. They’re going to need Kirk Cousins’ cooperation to get a trade and I would think that’s going to be hard to get, which sets up the real possibility that they wind up releasing him even though the organization hasn’t gotten to that point yet and hasn’t said that its willing to move on from him.”
“But this is a situation that looks a lot like what Denver and Russell Wilson went through last offseason before Denver decided ultimately to move on from him when it said it wouldn’t necessarily do that. They released him, he wound up signing a one-year deal at a low salary in Pittsburgh and that’s how I think people across the league believe this situation will unfold with the Falcons, with the Falcons releasing Kirk Cousins right around the start of the new year league, with him becoming a free agent, and with him finding a new home.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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