Kirk Cousins returns to Minnesota the same quarterback in a new stage of his career

FLOWERY BRANCH, GA. – The refrains are familiar: Coaches praise his thoroughness and the honesty with which he owns mistakes. Teammates recall how quickly he worked the lunchroom to make connections, and how precisely he tutored them on how he wanted routes run and protections blocked.

No quarterback, especially not one drafted 102nd overall, lasts 13 years in the NFL without starting over in one way or another. Kirk Cousins, you'll likely not be shocked to learn, has a process for it.

By the time they reach Cousins' age, quarterbacks who've lasted this long in the NFL generally fall into one of two camps. There are the franchise cornerstones, who've played a decade or more with one team and have put their names on trophies. And then there are the journeymen, existing for a year at a time as backups who could run the offense if necessary.

Cousins occupies a kind of third category: the private contractor. He has made nearly $300 million in his NFL career, having earned at least $19 million each of his past nine seasons while playing for three teams. He is 948 yards away from joining Carson Palmer as the only NFL quarterbacks to post 4,000-yard seasons for three different teams.

There is a particular demand for his services, often at an estimable price, among teams that view themselves as a quarterback upgrade away from contention. While he doesn't stay a decade with one team, he earns multiyear deals, often laden with guarantees from clubs willing to pay for a professional effort at the position, which Cousins delivers through an approach that is transferable, repeatable and deliberate.

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He returns to U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday, but this time as the quarterback of the visiting Atlanta Falcons, whose four-year, $180 million contract offer in March was enough to secure Cousins' departure from Minnesota in free agency. The Falcons, coming off two years of QB uncertainty after Matt Ryan's departure, saw Cousins as an immediate upgrade; Cousins, whose wife, Julie, is from the Atlanta area, saw the Falcons as a friendly landing spot that might be his last NFL stop.

The longevity of the arrangement could already be in question. The Falcons selected Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth pick in the draft, a move that initially stunned Cousins, and calls for the rookie have gotten louder after three consecutive Atlanta losses where Cousins threw six interceptions without a touchdown, including four in a loss to the Chargers last week.

Coach Raheem Morris backed Cousins this week, saying the 36-year-old has "been through a lot in his career. He's built for this, and he's ready to go." But the calls for Penix could grow louder if a fourth straight Falcons loss this weekend knocks them out of a tie for first in the NFC South.

Cousins maintains plenty of friendships in the Vikings organization, and there was plenty of cordiality before the game this week. Vikings players praised their former quarterback, with Harrison Phillips saying Thursday he hopes fans will welcome Cousins in "an appropriate way" when his name is announced. But the Brian Flores defense that flustered Cousins in practices last year has only grown more intricate, and Cousins' reduced mobility after last year's Achilles tear could leave him in a precarious position against a team that blitzes more than any in the NFL.

"A year and a half ago, it's like an eternity in football," Cousins said Wednesday. "So I think the way they've changed their personnel, the way they've evolved … you can't draw as much [from previous experience] as you'd like. But I have a lot of respect for Coach Flores, for that group and the guys on that team. Their record is what it is for a reason. They've earned it, and they've been a challenge for people."

Cousins framed the reunion this weekend as a moment for gratitude, telling Atlanta reporters the now-familiar story about his former neighbor Jon Weber, who used to clear snow from his Inver Grove Heights driveway, and joking about his ongoing friendship with Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell, who continues to be in touch with Cousins.

"I have friends in the league on other teams. I don't know if friendships are allowed in it or not," he said with a laugh, referencing the NFL's tampering investigation into the Falcons' recruitment of Cousins this spring. "But yes, I do try to keep in touch with a lot of people there, and Kevin is certainly one of them."

His compatriots in the Falcons quarterback room, though, didn't try to downplay what the game means to Cousins.

"He's very aware of what went on in the [Chargers] game, what he needs to fix, and it's an immediate mindset change of how we're going to attack the next week," quarterbacks coach T.J. Yates said. "And, obviously everybody knows this one is special to him."

Professor in the locker room

Cousins is the oldest player on the Falcons roster by more than four years, entering the league just one season after his quarterbacks coach, who was a fifth-round pick in 2011.

Zac Robinson, the first-year Falcons offensive coordinator, is Cousins' ninth coordinator in 13 seasons. The quarterback has spent so much time with the same network of coaches that Robinson, who was the assistant QB coach on the Rams' 2021 Super Bowl team, is the fourth member of that staff to be either Cousins' coordinator or offensive play-caller (after Sean McVay, O'Connell and Wes Phillips), despite the fact Cousins has never played for the Rams.

In Minnesota, his locker was near Harrison Smith, his classmate from the 2012 draft. In Atlanta, Cousins is advancing further into that surreal final act of a quarterback's career, being coached by his contemporaries while throwing passes to players almost a generation younger than him.

He was 29 when he joined a Vikings team coming off a trip to the NFC title game, with a coach (Mike Zimmer) who had expressed concerns about an expensive quarterback two weeks before the Vikings signed Cousins. It made for a tentative, and tenuous, onramp to leadership that might not have been fully paved until the Vikings hired O'Connell. In Morris' first year as Falcons head coach, there is little doubt who leads their locker room.

Cousins is part professor for the Falcons, given the floor at the beginning of each quarterback meeting to share his notes with Yates, Penix and Nathan Peterman about the previous day's practice or his film study. He sends Robinson voice memos (a trick he picked up from Peyton Manning) with thoughts on the offense and has the last word in setting pass protections (as he did in Minnesota) with a line that includes 11-year veteran Jake Matthews and second-team All-Pro Chris Lindstrom.

"What makes him so great is that he tells us what he wants or what he expects, but he knows what's challenging for us as offensive linemen," Lindstrom said. "He'll just say, 'I understand you're in a tough spot here [with this particular block]. Let me help you out with this.' "

The quirky humor Cousins showed in his final two Vikings seasons is on display, too, from the Steve Smith Atlanta Hawks jersey he wore on the first day of training camp to the list of conspiracy theories he discusses as a running joke with the other quarterbacks. The latest, Yates said Thursday, was a discussion about the 2022 lawsuit McDonald's filed against the manufacturer of its frequently malfunctioning ice cream machines.

"He'll sit at different tables in the building. He's always trying to have conversations with guys," tight end Charlie Woerner said. "Just because he's older doesn't mean [there won't be a relationship]. He's an open guy, and he's very intentional about it."

The connection Cousins worked the most directly to make could have been the one that was the most awkward to establish.

Sources said in April the Falcons gave Cousins only about three minutes of advance notice they were taking a quarterback, a decision that immediately surprised him after he'd left Minnesota for Atlanta in part because the Vikings told him they planned to draft a QB in the first round. But Penix said Cousins called him on draft night to congratulate him and signal his openness to working together.

"I'm not expecting him to tell me each and every thing, but at the same time, he's there for that," Penix said. "He's open. If I have questions, he'll talk to me or ask me questions about stuff as well. So I'm glad we have that bond."

'The way of life'

Starting over at age 36, though, meant Cousins was joining a team that would soon be talking about life without him, whether it drafted a quarterback this year or not.

Penix's presence in Atlanta quickly moved those discussions from hypothetical to real. Cousins' turnovers the past three weeks had Morris answering questions about how soon the Falcons might turn to Penix, and Ryan (now an analyst for CBS) said this week that while Cousins should start against the Vikings, he'd think about turning to Penix if Cousins gets off to a rocky start.

From multiple perspectives, the sentiment could be premature. The Falcons are still tied for the NFC South lead with the Buccaneers (whom they swept in October), and turning to Penix in the middle of a playoff race could be too abrupt. But Cousins, who hasn't thrown a touchdown pass since his three-TD game against Zimmer's Cowboys defense on Nov. 3, has plenty at stake as he returns this weekend.

Departing from Minnesota was emotional for his family; his wife planned to fly to the Twin Cities before the game to catch up with friends and revisit some favorite spots. The Cousins family has moved into a home near the Falcons' facility, and the quarterback's sons, Cooper and Turner, are thriving in school. But the return to Minnesota will trigger plenty of nostalgia.

"It's certainly unique," he said. "It's not like everywhere you play on the road, you spent six years there. You have memories come back to you, but that's part of the deal. For so many players in this league, we've all been on other teams. It's rare to play double-digit years with one team. So for many of us, it's kind of the way of life."

It has been for Cousins, the Pro Bowl QB for hire. It might continue to be, depending on how quickly the Falcons move to Penix.

By now, he's used to it.

Every time he goes to a news conference to speak to reporters, he said: "It's always kind of a, 'Well, I guess I beat the odds there.' At some point, they'll tell you, 'Hey, you're not going to get another chance. Your time is up in this league.' Until then, keep trying to pick myself up off the mat and get back to work."

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