The Falcons did not get what they paid for in Week 1.
And it left some speculating about the health of quarterback Kirk Cousins, whom they signed to a four-year, $180 million contract with $100 million guaranteed during the offseason after the 36-year-old suffered a season-ending Achilles injury last October.
A day after Atlanta’s 18-10 home loss to the Steelers on Sunday in which Cousins struggled, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris addressed Cousins’ physical status.
“I feel like Kirk is healthy,” Morris told reporters Monday. “He’s been healthy since he’s been here.”
Cousins went 16-for-26 with 155 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in the loss, getting sacked twice and recording a 28.9 QBR while passing for just 19 yards in the second half.
It was his first game since Oct. 29 of last year, when he suffered the season-ending injury against the Packers.
“Needed to play better,” Cousins told reporters Sunday. “That’s the bottom line. I thought our defense played very well; I thought our special teams played very well. We didn’t complement that enough on offense.”
The notion that Cousins may not be completely healed from his injury seems to be supported by the plays called by first-year offensive coordinator Zac Robinson.
The Falcons ran pistol or shotgun formations on 96 percent of their offensive snaps, according to ESPN Stats and Information.
Of the 26 snaps out of the pistol, they ran the ball 81 percent of the time, while they had zero designed runs on 22 shotgun snaps.
Sunday marked the first time Cousins had ever taken more than 10 snaps out of the pistol formation, per ESPN.
Morris blamed Cousins’ struggles on “rust.”
“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. “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.”
The Falcons confounded the NFL world when they drafted quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 overall in this year’s draft despite giving Cousins a ton of money.
Fans’ calls to see Penix take the field would grow louder if Cousins turns in more performances like Sunday’s.
The Falcons visit the Eagles for “Monday Night Football” in Week 2.