Sports Illustrated confirms reason for Kirk Cousins' departure from Minnesota

The sports industry at its core is a people business. So, hearing the latest news about Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins' departure from Minnesota this offseason is a bit tough to digest.

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer confirms in his recent installment of TheMMQB that the reason Cousins left was the possibility that the Vikings would select a quarterback in the first round of this year's draft.

I do have one last take on the Atlanta Falcons’ handling of the quarterback situation. And that’s that I would 100% understand if Kirk Cousins is still stinging a bit from the whole ordeal.

Here’s why—a reason he decided to leave Minnesota is because the Vikings were very up front with the 35-year-old about the possibility that, even in the case he stayed, they’d take a quarterback of the future high in the draft. Tying that together with the team’s willingness to guarantee part, but not all, of a second year on another contract, Cousins figured that, if he stayed, there was a good shot that he’d be on the move in 2025.

I know Cousins appreciated how open the Vikings were about their draft strategy, even if it meant him leaving.

So if you were him, how would you feel when that call came, as his new team was on the clock, to explain how the Falcons were taking his heir apparent, Michael Penix Jr., with the eighth pick? Now, I do understand why Atlanta felt the need to keep it quiet, and why GM Terry Fontenot’s experience in New Orleans in 2017, when the Chiefs knew the Saints coveted Patrick Mahomes and jumped ahead of them to get him, marked the decision not to tell Cousins of their plans.

Still, it had to be a crappy call to take if you were Cousins, considering the basis of the decision you’d made six weeks earlier. It remains to be seen, of course, if that’ll lead to any sort of early fissure in the player-team relationship there. I think they’ll be able to get past it, because head coach Raheem Morris is a phenomenal relationship guy, and Cousins is an adult. But if there are early bumps in the season, this one will be interesting to w atch.

Cousins has been handsomely paid over his career, pulling in over $281 million, including Atlanta's $50 million signing bonus.  But at the end of the day, he's still a human being and it's clear that he was fed a dream from General Manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris and they did not keep up their end of the bargain.

So, yes, Cousins will go on to presumably play well for the Falcons over at least the next two years. He probably will even be a good mentor for Penix as he navigates the league, but there is no doubt that this whole situation has to be deflating for a quarterback who set his sights on retiring as a Falcon.