Kirk Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons last month, and at the age of 35, you have to wonder how many years he has left in the NFL.
Even Cousins is thinking about his own NFL mortality, as he expressed to Shaquille O’Neal during an appearance on The Big Podcast this week.
While discussing his decision to sign with the Falcons in free agency, Cousins made it clear to O’Neal that he plans on making this his last stop.
“I want this to be my final stop. I don’t want to do the deal — no offense — but I don’t want to go play for the Suns and Celtics at the end,” Cousins said, referencing the twilight years of Shaq’s NBA career. “I want to go finish with the Heat, if you will, and be done, you know? So, that’s really my plan is that I wouldn’t play for another team — I’d finish with the Falcons.”
Cousins says that his two sons are playing a major factor in his choice to make Atlanta the last team that he plays for.
“My boys are 6 and 5, they won’t remember that I played in Washington, they will barely remember I played for Minnesota, they’re going to remember I played for the Falcons, and I want those to be good memories,” Cousins said. “So, I feel like this is the stretch I want to finish strong. People remember how you finish more than how you started. So, the start was good, but I want to finish really strong here in Atlanta and have my boys say yeah, ‘he may have played for Washington or Minnesota, but we remember him as a Falcon’ I want fans to say the same thing.”
So, basically, Cousins wants to spend the rest of his career with the Falcons.
If he plays anything like he did in the first half of 2023, that’s good news for Atlanta fans.
In eight games before tearing his Achilles last season, Cousins threw for 2,331 yards, 18 touchdowns and five interceptions while completing 69.5 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 103.8.
Cousins spent the last six years with the Minnesota Vikings, making three trips to the Pro Bowl during his time there. He also threw for 30 or more touchdowns three times and hit 29 touchdowns in one of the other seasons.
Prior to joining the Vikings, the Michigan State product spent the first six years of his career with the Washington Redskins, where he made one Pro Bowl appearance. He served as Robert Griffin III’s backup for his first three seasons.
We’ll see if Kirk Cousins can get healthy and return to form with the Falcons in 2024.
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