Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris spoke with reporters on Friday and indicated the club is pleased with where quarterback Kirk Cousins is in his injury recovery amid phase two of the offseason program.
“Kirk is every day improving,” Morris explained, according to Grant Gordon of the NFL’s website. “We’re kinda right at the point where he’s doing everything that we can do at this point in phase two, which is nobody around him, there’s no contact, he’s all good with all those type of things. He’s been doing all those things, he’s been throwing, he’s been out there pretty much full-go. Now, we got him in a limited basis, obviously ’cause he’s still in his rehab and his treatment and all those types of things.”
Cousins suffered a torn Achilles while with the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 29 but signed a four-year, $180M contract that included $100M guaranteed to join the Falcons back in March.
That deal didn’t prevent Atlanta from controversially making signal-caller Michael Penix Jr. the eighth overall pick of this year’s draft on the night of April 25.
As Mike Sando of The Athletic pointed out, at least one unnamed NFL executive previously wondered if Atlanta grabbed Penix because “something happened in Kirk’s rehab between when he signed and draft day that made them feel like, ‘Oh my God, we might not have him for more than a year.'” Sando added that, as of May 2, there was “no indication” Cousins had experienced any type of setback in his recovery.
Morris seemed to confirm that positive news on Friday.
“Most of the stuff is jog-through, as you guys know in the offseason programs now,” Morris said about Cousins, per Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. “So, he’s full-go in those types of things. …It’s not like training camp where I’m worried about people being around his feet, because the pace is so [much] slower that we feel really good about where he’s at right now.”
As of the second weekend of May, Cousins is expected to be atop the Falcons’ depth chart for their regular-season opener in September.
His future with the club beyond the upcoming campaign is now in question with Penix on the roster, so it’s a safe bet that Cousins will want to show he’s as good as new by the time training camp sessions begin this summer.
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