The worst-kept secret in football has been made official: Kirk Cousins is headed to Atlanta. Things were clearly headed in this direction over the past week, and now the former Viking has put pen to paper to join the Falcons. Cousins turns 36 years old in August and is coming off a torn Achilles, but he’s indisputably an enormous upgrade over the Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke combo Atlanta trotted out last year. Let’s dig into what this means for fantasy.
KIRK COUSINS
Old ranking: 142nd overall on Underdog
New ranking: 138th overall
- Cousins is going to be 36 and coming off a torn Achilles. The expectation should be that he provides absolutely nothing as a runner. However, he’s shown no signs of slowing down throwing the football and has a stacked trio of weapons in Drake London, Bijan Robinson, and Kyle Pitts in Atlanta. Zac Robinson helped the Rams perform as one of the best aerial attacks in the league over the past five years. This is an ideal marriage between a competent quarterback and a team with everything except passable QB play. If Cousins is healthy, he’s a solid QB2 who should start all 17 games. That’s not super valuable in normal season-long fantasy, but it’s a workable mold in best ball.
OTHER FALCONS PLAYERS
- It’s wheels up for London, Pitts, and Robinson. London’s target share torpedoed from 28.2% as a rookie to 22.4% in his sophomore campaign, but that number may creep back up with a more competent offensive play-caller who emphasizes getting the ball to the best players. Justin Jefferson, Stefon Diggs, and Adam Thielen have all posted WR1 seasons with Cousins at the helm; London might be the next in line. The former first-round pick will turn 23 in July and has posted at least 110 targets in each of his first two NFL seasons despite playing in the run-heaviest offense in football. He has top-10 upside with Cousins at QB and should be drafted as a strong WR2.
- Pitts hasn’t lived up to the expectations bestowed upon him as the fourth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, but he’s never had a setup as good as this. Robinson and Raheem Morris will likely feature him as a de facto WR2 rather than funneling his targets to a JAG TE2 (sorry, Jonnu Smith) like Arthur Smith did, and Cousins turned T.J. Hockenson into a top-three fantasy TE before they both got hurt last year. Pitts also played through MCL and PCL injuries in 2023; having the offseason to get healthy should do wonders for his efficiency, which suffered in 2022-23 after a strong rookie campaign. Some fantasy players may distrust Pitts after he failed to live up to expectations two years in a row, but that could have just been the incompetency of Arthur Smith and the QBs. 2024 is do-or-die time for Pitts.
- Robinson is set to step into a feature role in 2024 after operating in a 50/50 rushing split with Tyler Allgeier for most of his rookie season. Allgeier won’t go away completely, but the new coaching staff should be more willing to entrust the former top-10 pick with the workload he deserves. Pair that with his already proven elite receiving ability (0.2 targets per route run as a rookie) and a massive QB upgrade, and Robinson has overall RB1 upside.
- The WR depth chart is still terrible after London, so the Falcons probably aren’t done adding at the skill positions.
VIKINGS OFFENSE
- Minnesota has the 11th overall pick and could be looking for their quarterback of the future either with that pick or by trading up. Justin Fields may be on the table too as options for his next destination continue to dry up. For Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson (once he’s healthy), Cousins’ departure is bad news, but we’ll see what Minnesota does at QB. Jefferson likely falls out of the top tier (CeeDee Lamb, Tyreek Hill, and Ja’Marr Chase) at WR and Addison also drops a tier or two with a question mark at quarterback.
