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00:00I, I feel like all season long, uh, the three of us have all taken chances.
00:05It kind of, Hey cap, the Kirk cousin thing's going bad and you've
00:09understandably been like, yeah, but they're paying him way too much money.
00:14Apparently it went so bad.
00:16Atlanta said, we don't really care about that.
00:19What have you been hearing around this whole situation in Atlanta?
00:23Boy, Kevin, let me give you the cliff notes version.
00:25We don't have an hour.
00:26So here's what happened.
00:27Okay.
00:28Here's what happened.
00:30Cousins are regressed so badly over the last five weeks that they kind of felt,
00:33you know what, this is time now.
00:35I know the way it works with NFL teams.
00:37We'll never say publicly anything badly about the Giants, but let's, let's be real
00:40here.
00:41The Giants defense is decimated by injury.
00:43Okay.
00:43All three levels of their defense, this game's at home.
00:47Michael panics is a outstanding pastor.
00:50We'll get to him in a second, but let's get back to cousins here.
00:53You are right.
00:53The way you set it up.
00:54I know you're trying to be funny, but you're actually right.
00:57They're not worried about the contract anymore.
01:00They own 27 and a half million next season.
01:02That's fully guaranteed that the two year take, which is incredible is 90 million.
01:06It's not 90 million, which is incorrect.
01:08People are saying, oh, it's 90 million this season.
01:09It's not.
01:10They guarantee 90 million, 45 and 45, really, if you want to look at it, 40, 45
01:15million on average per season and 90 million total over the first two seasons,
01:19fully guaranteed.
01:20There's nothing they could do.
01:22I mean, if they cut them, they own it.
01:23That's not what they want to do, but here's the problem with this contract.
01:27And it's just like with Derek Carr's winnings with the Raiders.
01:30He, Kirk Cousins has a no trade clause.
01:33So basically, even if three to four teams in March, Kevin, go to, go to Mike
01:37McCarty, his agent and cousins and say, Hey, listen, we've got three to four
01:41teams here that are willing to work with us.
01:43Would you work with us?
01:45Kirk could say, no, you can do whatever you want.
01:47I'm over this money.
01:48And I want, I want to control where I go.
01:50And he does.
01:50That's what a no trade clause does.
01:53You control your destiny, not the club.
01:55So it, the leverage clearly is here with the player, no matter how much the
01:59Falcons feel like they'd rather not cut them, there's no way he's coming out of
02:03bat as a backup.
02:04I know there's stuff out there.
02:05It ain't happening.
02:0627 and a half million for a backup.
02:07Forget about it.
02:08You're not paying that.
02:09If we are looking forward to a double down on that Atlanta scenario.
02:13I I've said it multiple times this week, Adam, I think it's a healthy move for
02:16the organization and the right move, but talking about the future, like Arthur
02:19blank is the owner, obviously he's going to call a lot of shots when you're
02:22writing a check that big, Terry Fondo, the general manager, and also Raheem
02:26Morris is the head coach.
02:27Any internal turmoil that shows like this move was healthy and that these two will
02:31move forward, talking about the head coach and the general manager, or do we
02:33think that they may part ways with one or maybe both of these once they say, well,
02:37we got this wrong, or is the head coach going to survive and the GM going to be
02:40out per se?
02:41Oh, no, the head, Raheem Morris isn't going anywhere.
02:43Now I know publicly Morris will look, let's put it this way.
02:48He didn't exactly back her cousins, which is if you're Kirk cousins, they reason
02:52to say, tell the Falcons.
02:53Nope, nope.
02:54I'm going to use my no trade clause.
02:56I control my own destiny here, but I don't see Terry Fondo being in danger here.
03:02See, I remember, and Kevin remembers this, when we had the draft coverage here on
03:05sports score, we were shocked.
03:07We couldn't understand why in the world would you select Michael Penix when you've
03:12guaranteed 90 million no matter what, but the owner, as I understand it, Arthur
03:16blank, he signed off on it.
03:19You're right, by the way, Donnie, the way you set it up, the owner has to be on
03:22board, all major transactions.
03:24The owner is always going to be involved.
03:26He's going to want to know not only what they want to do, but they want to know
03:29the why, but their thought process, as I was explained back when it happened, if
03:34they figured cousins would be the starter for two seasons, he's clearly not going
03:37to be, I mean, basically based on contract structure, they would turn to Penix in
03:43year three, but that's not what's happening here.
03:44And clearly, yes, Fondo missed badly on this, but the hope here with Penix, let's
03:49talk about him for a second, super aggressive thrower.
03:53I know he's a little bit older, but that doesn't matter.
03:55A quarterback, he's had an injury history.
03:57That does matter, but he's a super aggressive thrower.
03:59I saw us in person at the senior ball last January, but he threw the ball really
04:03well.
04:04And look, the hope here is that Kyle Pitts gets the ball more because cousins
04:09simply, you know, it through this five game slide here, as you notice pits more
04:14often than not, doesn't get the football.
04:15Darnell Mooney, who's been a really good acquisition, he needs to get the ball
04:18more.
04:19And obviously Drake London does as well.
04:21So the feeling around the club, as I'm told, is behind the scenes.
04:24Penix has done very, very well in practice.
04:27They're hoping that it manifests today against a beat up Giants defense.
04:30Cap, I want to keep it there with Penix.
04:32And the reason why I bring that up is if this was the thought process all along,
04:36right, why didn't they allow Michael Penix the opportunity to throw in the
04:41preseason?
04:42I watched the game at the end when they were getting blown out by Denver 38 to
04:46six, the last eight minutes.
04:48He's all he's doing is handing the football off.
04:50Why didn't they allow him game opportunities to throw the football?
04:55If this was the big picture outlook and their season was really, they did it
05:00actually in the joint practices, particularly the one against Miami.
05:03As I understand, they also in training camp practice, he took plenty of, he got
05:07plenty of reps just to show what he can do.
05:09But see Joe, the problem is they made this commitment with cousins and remember
05:13coming back from the 20 killies, he had to show that it was right.
05:17And I know talk to some people have graded their, their tape.
05:20Uh, there've been some people around the league that didn't quite like the scheme
05:23that they've asked cousins to run it.
05:24It's West coast, but the type of throws they made him, they asked him to make.
05:28It just didn't work overall.
05:29Very inconsistent.
05:30It's what's ironic is Joe, his best game as a Falcon was against the team that
05:37they're competing against in that division, that crazy game he had against
05:39Tampa where everyone thought cousins was back.
05:41And by the way, the Falcons own the tiebreaker.
05:44They absolutely do.
05:45Because of that win, they're still look, they're a game behind here.
05:49It's going to be hard for them to win division, but they're
05:50still alive for a playoff spot.
05:52And that was their thinking.
05:53Give panics a chance.
05:55With a high leverage situation where they're still in the playoff race.
05:58I get that part of it.