Getty Image / Michael Reaves
The Atlanta Falcons have made the biggest splash on the first day of free agency, as they’ve signed former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins to a massive deal.
Cousins’ contract is for four years and $180 million, with $100 million guaranteed. At that price, they’re betting that Kirk Cousins can quickly get them into Super Bowl contention in a weak NFC that is pretty open.
Falcons fans should be quite happy about this. They’ve been in quarterback purgatory the last two years after longtime starter Matt Ryan departed following the 2021 season.
But, another group of people that should be thrilled are dynasty fantasy football players. Those fantasy players have surely been burned the last few years by owning one of the Falcons’ three young stud skill position players who have been held back by poor scheme and quarterback play.
Tight end Kyle Pitts, wide receiver Drake London, and running back Bijan Robinson are all guys the Falcons have taken in the top eight picks in the NFL Draft in three successive drafts the last few years. But, their production hasn’t been at the level that dynasty fantasy players who surely drafted those players with valuable picks expected them to be.
Part of the reason those players didn’t put up huge numbers is that former head coach Atlanta Falcons Arthur Smith was anathema to fantasy football players. He was incredibly unpredictable in terms of who he would scheme up touches for. There were large stretches of games where you could easily forget that Pitts, London, and Robinson were on the team. That’s inexcusable.
On the other hand, poor quarterback play was also a limiting factor. Guys like Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder, and Taylor Heinicke aren’t good enough to run consistently productive NFL passing games. That hurt all three of those guys significantly.
People can debate how good of an actual quarterback Kirk Cousins is. But, they can’t debate that he can get the ball to playmakers enough to for them to put up big fantasy numbers. All of a sudden, Pitts, London, and Robinson are very valuable long-term fantasy players now.
I’m sure the trio is also loving they will have a guy like Kirk Cousins running the offense, too.