Falcons notes and quotes from Day 1 of mandatory minicamp

Here are the high points from Day 1 of Falcons mandatory minicamp.

Tuesday marked the first day of the Falcons’ mandatory minicamp, and an unusual twist this offseason is that all eyes are on the backup quarterback situation.

Unless you were stuck on the International Space Station for 286 days or something, you’ve probably noticed that the Falcons quarterback room and the corresponding salary cap room are pretty unconventional for the NFL this year. Kirk Cousins is penciled in as Atlanta’s backup for 2025, despite his $40m cap hit. By comparison, 2025 starter Michael Penix Jr.’s cap hit for this season is just over $5.2m.

Obviously Cousins wants to start. Who wouldn’t? But Morris said Cousins is accepting his backup role with characteristic respect and professionalism.

“I’m really comfortable with Kirk because of who he is,” Morris said prior to practice. “… He’s going to go out and do whatever it takes for us to help this football team as long as he’s with us, and he’s with us. It’s been a less dramatic situation than it has been from an outside-of-the-building standpoint.”

Cousins was extremely candid in his analysis of what went wrong for him last season (more on that in a bit), He also had nothing but good things to say about Penix.

“Michael’s going to do great. He’s going to have a great career,” Cousins said. “He’s off to a great start. He’s got all the all the tangibles and intangibles you need to be successful. And I’m just here to support him as he needs it, but I also don’t need to be in his ear so much that I’m sort of just another voice. I just want to be as supportive as I can, and he knows that, and obviously we’re in close proximity on the field and in meetings. We have great conversations, and I can learn from him, just like you can learn from me. And that’s how a good quarterback room always should be.”

Notes and quotes from Day 1 of Falcons mandatory minicamp:

• Raheem Morris described the plans for minicamp as a “big-time jog-through,” but said it wouldn’t look much different than what we’ve seen in previous years.
• Kyle Pitts has been out with a foot injury, and Kaleb McGary has been out with an undisclosed injury. Morris said they’re going to be cautious with both, and with the rest of the team.
• The only person on the 90-man roster who wasn’t at minicamp on Tuesday was DL Morgan Fox, whose absence was excused due to a personal matter. AtlantaFalcons.com’s Terrin Waack took roll call at practice and there were several players who did not participate.

• I love watching Bijan Robinson play football. And it turns out that I am not the only one. Michael Penix had high praise for Atlanta’s RB1 after practice when asked to describe what it’s like playing with Robinson.

“Crazy. I don’t even know how to explain it. If he touched the ball every play and the defense knew every play, we still gonna make big time plays,” Atlanta’s starting QB said. “He’s just, he’s just that guy … he’s a guy that, when you go to a little league game, and it’s always that one kid that stands out, that never gets tackled, he scores every time he touches the ball — that’s him, but in the NFL. Think about that. He does unreal stuff.”

• When asked what he gets out of going up against AJ Terrell in practice, Drake London said, “Everything. Iron sharpens iron.”
• Kirk Cousins is candid to a fault (literally, it’s gotten the Falcons in trouble for tampering) and what he had to say about his injury situation, performance, and benching last season was no different. He said that he overestimated how healthy he was coming off of the Achilles injury. He’d primarily focused on making sure the repaired Achilles was strong, and with no emphasis on improving flexibility he was playing with a lot of ankle stiffness.

“Hey, (on a scale of) one to 10, I thought I was at an eight, and I was really back at a three or four, and now I’m getting back to that six, seven and eight. So you start to kind of realize that you weren’t quite as far along as you thought. And that was kind of a lot of learning this offseason to get there,” Cousins said.

Cousins says the Achilles feels good, and he’s still working on the mobility.

“The Falcons have been great, giving me the resources and the equipment I need to be able to do that. And so it’s been a learning process,” Cousins said.

• The Falcons are back at it again tomorrow for Day 2. Morris should address the media around 11:35 a.m., and practice will likely start around 12:40 p.m. It’ll be the last action we see before the real NFL doldrums leading up to training camp.