Falcons coach addresses Kirk Cousins injury concern after $180M QB’s Week 1 dud

Nothing in the Falcons' Week 1 effort did much to curb the speculation about quarterback Kirk Cousins' health after he signed a four-year, $180 million deal following a season-ending Achilles injury in October. Falcons head coach Raheem Morris addressed Cousins' physical status following Atlanta's 18-10 loss to the Steelers. “I feel like Kirk is healthy,” Morris said on Monday, as per ESPN. “He's been healthy since he’s been here.”Cousins is a pretty accomplished quarterback, ranking fifth all-time in completion percentage among players with at least 1,500 pass attempts. He had his college football with Michigan State Spartans and later got drafted by the Washington Redskins during the NFL draft in 2012. He took over after being a back-up to Robert Griffin III and led the Redskins to a division title in 2015. He set several franchise records and was named to the 2017 Pro Bowl. On March 15, 2018, Cousins signed a three-year contract with the Minnesota Vikings. He has been named to three consecutive Pro Bowls and is third in Vikings all-time passing yards. He joined the Falcons in 2024.The Falcons didn't run many plays with Cousins under center thus speculation could be made they were protecting him as they ran only one such offensive play with new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson calling plays. Atlanta ran a total of 26 plays out of the pistol set and 22 out of shotgun, combined for a total gain of 6 yards in those sets.Morris, however, described Cousins' health unrelated to the system offence. He added that Cousins' issues may be related to “some rust from not playing for so long.” “With Kirk being here, we've been doing the same thing since he's been here, and that's how we've planned on playing and we've played that way throughout,” Morris said as per ESPN. “We've played that way for a minute, and we've done a bunch of different things in our case and everything we're going to do is figuring out how to win this football game. And that was the plan to go out there and win the football game.”They signed the 36-year-old Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal to lead the league in TD passes. Defensively, it was all Steelers as edge rusher T.J. Watt wreaked havoc, accounting for 3 QB hits, 1 sack, 2 tackles for a loss, and 1 fumble recovery. “We played, I thought, winning football in two phases of the game, and we didn't play winning football in our offensive phase of the game,” Morris added.