How Atlanta Falcons QB Path Went from Matt Ryan to Kirk Cousins - And Not Deshaun Watson or Lamar Jackson

Inside the Atlanta Falcons' three-year hunt for a franchise quarterback, including talks of Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson before settling on Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder, paving the way for Kirk Cousins.

Atlanta Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot, head coach Raheem Morris and owner Arthur Blank. / Clutch Points

It’s Jan. 20, 2021, and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank is planted in his chair, virtually introducing his team's newest head coach, Arthur Smith.

Blank, donning a white button-up dress shirt, thought he'd landed an innovative offensive mind to pair with 35-year-old quarterback Matt Ryan, ideally elongating the veteran's career.

Fast forward to Jan. 8, 2024, when Blank, wearing a salmon dress shirt underneath a black blazer, is once more seated, this time alongside CEO Rich McKay, some 22 months after trading Ryan and 16 hours removed from firing Smith.

The Falcons went 7-10 in each of Smith's three seasons, during which a different quarterback started Week 1 each year.

Oct 23, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) passes / Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Blank was left wondering what went wrong, all the while forced to ponder the moves Atlanta didn't make when opportunity arose.

He knew the magnitude of the situation. He didn’t know precisely what the next three months held.

***

Ryan's track record in Atlanta speaks for itself.

From the time he arrived in 2008, Ryan carried tremendous weight as the leader of the Falcons' new era - post-Michael Vick, post-Bobby Petrino and post-nine years of struggles that followed Atlanta’s first Super Bowl appearance, a stretch that saw only two playoff berths.

When Ryan left 14 years later, he was the franchise's all-time leader in passing yards (59,735) and passing touchdowns (367), both of which ranked top-10 in NFL history.

“Matt Ryan is one of my favorite people in life and one of the greatest players that has ever played for the franchise,” McKay said. “He will definitely be in the Ring of Honor whenever he’s ready to get in the Ring of Honor.”

But as the Falcons' playoff window from the mid-to-late-2010s closed and Atlanta suffered its fourth consecutive losing season in 2021, the possibility of Ryan leaving became more realistic.

Ryan was still productive, completing 67 percent of his passes for 3,968 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, but was beginning to decline. Stylistically, he didn't bring the mobility Smith's offense prefers under center.

Still, Ryan and Blank had a strong relationship, with hopes the former would retire a Falcon.

But there was another factor at play - Ryan's five-year, $150 million contract that was negotiated by previous general manager Thomas Dimitroff and still had two years left.

All the while, McKay said Atlanta knew it was rebuilding, even if it wouldn't admit as much publicly - and Ryan's contract didn't fit the window.

Blank noted there hasn't been a quarterback in the Super Bowl taking up more than 17 percent of his team's salary cap space in the last 20 years. By the spring of 2022, Ryan was close to 25 percent.

It wasn't anybody's fault, Blank said, but reality remained.

“We all signed up for it, and we were thankful that (Ryan) had an incredible career with us,” Blank said. “But at some point, you have to make a transition.

“Whether it’s related to compensation or it’s related to annual performance, you have to make that judgment and move on.”

But it wasn't that straightforward.

The Falcons didn't have a solution to replace Ryan. Given the chance to draft a successor at No. 4 overall in Smith and Fontenot's first year, they instead made Kyle Pitts the highest-drafted tight end in league history.

Jan 9, 2022; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) passes against the New / Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

With a weak quarterback draft class in 2022 that ultimately saw just one passer go in the first 70 selections, Atlanta perused the market of ready-made options.

Enter Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson.

***

It had been over 14 months since Watson’s last NFL pass when the Falcons rolled out the proverbial red carpet for him at team headquarters in Flowery Branch on March 16, 2022.

The decision to pursue Watson wasn’t driven by one force. It was a collaborative move involving several of the team’s top decision makers, including Blank and McKay.

Atlanta was tired of kicking the ball down the road with Ryan’s contract. Watson, then a 26-year-old with three Pro Bowl’s already under his belt, presented a viable replacement.

“At some point, you have to decide, ‘Should we move on and try to do a reset and have another 14-year run with another version of Matt Ryan?’” Blank said. “Which is incredibly difficult to duplicate because he’s a special player and a special human being as well. Even looking back with hindsight – I don’t think we would have done anything differently at that time.”

But the Falcons weren’t fully committed to moving on from Ryan. They were having internal discussions about the timing of potential moves, with the June 1 rule dominating conversations.

If Atlanta moved on from Ryan before June 1, all of his dead cap space would immediately be pushed to the books. If it waited until after June 1, his then-league-record $40 million cap hit would be dispersed over two seasons.

For this reason, McKay doesn’t want to tie Ryan and Watson together. Still, they always will be - especially with the Falcons admittedly engaging in the Watson sweepstakes while still rostering Ryan.

“We pursued it to a point,” Blank said. “Then at some point, it didn’t make sense for us, so we became just an observer. It was not a long discussion we had about Deshaun. We went through a little bit of the process with him.

“Then, we decided for a lot of reasons that we didn’t want to continue to pursue him.”

The Falcons were believed to be pursuing Watson until the final hour of his process, which ultimately concluded with the decision to join the Cleveland Browns, who offered a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract.

McKay and Blank said Atlanta dropped out before decision day, with McKay adding it became apparent a relationship wouldn’t work between Watson and the Falcons.

The “consequence,” as McKay described the Falcons’ involvement with Watson, was Ryan doing his own research and ultimately wanting out. Ryan later said he likely would’ve stayed in Atlanta had the Watson situation never transpired.

Still, the Falcons believe something had to give with Ryan - his salary was simply occupying too much cap space. In a sense, moving him was inevitable.

Atlanta wanted to set up a transition plan. Blank cited the Green Bay Packers, who went from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love, as a strong example of what it could’ve looked like.

But after digging into the Watson talks, Ryan decided he was done in Atlanta. Three days after Watson went to Cleveland, the Falcons traded Ryan to the Indianapolis Colts on March 21.

Less than two hours later, Atlanta signed Marcus Mariota to a cost-effective contract that cemented him as the team’s bridge quarterback - and ensured the Falcons would face questions under center again in 12 months time.

***

McKay racked his mind for a name and finally found it.

In March 1993, McKay, then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ vice president, thought he’d solved his team’s quarterback dilemma. Instead, he did the dirty work for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

McKay and the Buccaneers agreed to terms with quarterback Neil O’Donnell, a restricted free agent, on a three-year contract that would’ve made him the highest-paid player in franchise history.

The Steelers had seven days to match the offer. Six days, 23 hours and 58 minutes later, they did.

Tampa Bay was ready for the press conference, excited to introduce its new franchise player. Instead, Pittsburgh pulled the rug out from underneath McKay and his staff at the last possible moment.

This memory entered McKay’s head when the Falcons were met with the possibility of signing Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson during free agency in the spring of 2023.

Jackson was three years removed from winning MVP and still one of the game’s brightest stars. He was also a restricted free agent.

McKay, drawing on his experience from three decades prior, knew what he was weighing: was there actually a chance Jackson would come?

“Because ultimately, you don’t get to make that decision,” McKay said. “The home team does. I think the internal answer was no. So, I think that discussion was had, but I think that’s what the answer was.”

Jan 28, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) reacts after / Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Blank, similarly, had doubts over Jackson’s true presence on the market.

“You could debate whether or not he really would have been available or not,” Blank said. “Who knows whether they would have matched whatever offers were on the table. I don’t know that. I’m not sure.”

Attainability was one factor. Cap space was another.

Blank has developed a reputation for building strong bonds with his players. In prior years, the Falcons had to watch some of their homegrown standouts depart elsewhere because they didn’t have enough money to compete with other offers.

This scenario played out one too many times for Blank’s liking.

“That’s not a good formula,” Blank said. “We want to be able to raise our own children and keep our own children as best we can.”

The Falcons were still coming out of cap rehab, McKay said, and were in a healthy spot.

Atlanta, considering its newfound release from a cap stranglehold, was enjoying the breath of fresh air, and instead of immediately re-entering a situation where it was tied down to an expensive quarterback, chose to fill out the rest of its roster.

The Falcons had a fruitful offseason that featured several big contracts, including deals that made Chris Lindstrom the highest-paid guard and Jessie Bates III the fourth highest-paid safety in NFL history. Both proceeded to earn Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods in 2023.

Blank stressed the situation wasn’t a criticism of Jackson, but rather the Falcons sticking to the plan they felt was best for the organization moving forward.

“I think the result of that thinking was, ‘Let’s stay the course. Let’s continue to pursue the vision that we have now. Continue to build this roster. Build this foundation offensively and defensively and go from there,’” Blank said.

Jackson ultimately re-signed with the Ravens, agreeing to a five-year, $260 million contract that made him the highest-paid player in league history. He rewarded the faith immediately, winning his second MVP.

Blank said he doesn’t believe it was a mistake to avoid offering Jackson, though it may be easy to say so considering the season he put together. Blank called Jackson an incredible player who had a great year.

Headlined by the cap space and difficulty of attainability, Blank has his reasons - perhaps most indicting of which being a miscalculation from Atlanta’s entire core of decision makers, sparked by 2022 third-round pick Desmond Ridder’s four-game stint to close his rookie season.

“I think the coaching staff – coaching, personnel, all of us – felt collectively, but certainly [Smith] and Terry, that we had an answer in Ridder,” Blank said. “A younger player without that kind of contract that would have kept us from actually building the team we wanted to build.”

And with that, Atlanta committed to Ridder as its starting quarterback before the first pass of spring practice - a decision that may have ultimately cost Smith his job.

***

When the Falcons selected Ridder at No. 74 overall, they immediately put themselves in a precarious position.

Such a move allows financial flexibility and doesn’t signal long-term commitment. It also doesn’t come with a particularly extensive list of success stories.

Ridder quickly impressed teammates and coaches with his mental capacity. During rookie minicamp, he’d wake up at 6 a.m., learning cadence and the intricacies of Atlanta’s playbook.

Buzz grew, but Smith was steadfast in backing Mariota, dubbing the veteran his starting signal caller after the first practice of training camp.

Mariota held the perch for 13 games. He battled external calls for his job for more than half of them. Ridder’s true abilities were unknown - an exciting yet dangerous prospect for a team still in the playoff picture entering December.

But after four backbreaking defeats in a five-game span saw Atlanta go from NFC South leaders to a slumping 5-8 squad, it was Ridder’s time.

Given four games to make a case for his candidacy as the Falcons’ 2023 starter, Ridder provided mixed returns, but Smith felt he checked lots of boxes.

Command, game poise and week-to-week progress impressed Smith and the Falcons’ decision makers.

Smith and Fontenot talked through lots of options in the months that followed, McKay said, including the draft, free agency and trade market.

But neither Smith nor Fontenot ever asked for another quarterback. Perhaps it arose over a beer, McKay spitballed, but never within a formal discussion. They backed Ridder, and ownership supported their decision.

“There was never – capital N-E-V-E-R – any discussion about any other quarterback path than the one that Coach Smith and Terry, and we supported, but they chose to take,” Blank said.

When the Falcons finalized their decision to start Ridder, they did so with much more evidence than just his four-game run to end 2022.

It was all of the closed door discussions, the team meetings, the practices - everything the public doesn’t see - that came together to form a profile Smith and Fontenot believed warranted a shot at the job.

“They liked what they saw,” McKay said. “They saw the progress through all of the practices through the ‘22 season. Played four games, and they made the decision that that was the best path to try to win this year.

“It didn’t work out for a number of reasons, but let’s not just say it was Desmond.”

This is where indictments began on Smith.

He and Fontenot were on the same page at quarterback. Fontenot later called Smith a brother. Smith didn’t lose his job because of relationship or communication problems or franchise direction. He lost it because of results - starting with quarterback.

Ridder was benched twice, watching as veteran backup Taylor Heinicke took over the reins for a pair of two-game stretches. Little changed other than the name under center. 

The two combined to throw 17 touchdowns and 16 interceptions, each turnover seemingly more damning than the last.

During the final half of Smith’s last game as Falcons head coach - a 48-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints - Ridder completed just eight of 14 passes for 60 yards and no touchdowns while turning the ball over twice.

He was benched one final time in the waning minutes for third-stringer Logan Woodside, who succinctly threw an interception. Atlanta was outscored 31-0 in the second half.

Blank called the Falcons’ quarterback play deficient. He also directed attention away from those actually throwing the passes.

“Quarterback play includes scheme, play-calling, other players,” Blank said. “There's a lot of things that go into whether a quarterback is successful or not, and how you transition a quarterback into the NFL with the level of complexity of plays you put in front of them and whether it matches where they are in their career path.”

And to Blank, Atlanta’s coaching staff - led by Smith - didn’t do enough to maximize the position.

“All I’m going to suggest is that I’ve learned a lot in my 22 years, and that’s one of the things - it’s not just the player. It’s the coach, the coaching,” Blank said. “Many of these young men, at all positions, come into the NFL today [and] they are diamonds in the rough, but they need to be polished, and polished by a great coaching staff.”

The Falcons decided Smith wasn’t the right option for that polishing, firing him around seven hours after the loss to New Orleans. They also decided Ridder wasn’t a part of their future, trading him to the Arizona Cardinals for receiver Rondale Moore on March 14.

And with that, Atlanta officially closed the book on a calamitous era it won’t soon forget - one marred by false hope, hesitant hunting and organizational buy-in to an answer that never was.

“I know that I did, and I know that Mr. McKay did as well – any option that the coach ever wanted relative to quarterback or any other position was completely supported by all of us 1,000 percent,” Blank said. “One thousand percent, without any equivocation.”

***

The Falcons’ first step in righting the wrongs of the previous three years started at the top, where Blank decided Raheem Morris offered the polish Smith didn’t.

Even before taking the head coaching job Jan. 25, Morris knew Atlanta’s biggest focus. He also knew he wanted to surround himself with as many quarterback-centric coaches as possible.

So, he did.

Morris hired Zac Robinson, previously the Los Angeles Rams’ quarterbacks coach, as his offensive coordinator. He then moved T.J. Yates, a former NFL quarterback who served as Atlanta’s receivers coach last year, to oversee the signal callers.

But Morris didn’t stop hiring. He added senior offensive assistant Ken Zampeze, offensive assistant K.J. Black, assistant quarterbacks coach D.J. Williams and pass game specialist Chandler Whitmer.

Last year, the Falcons didn’t have a labeled quarterbacks coach - offensive coordinator Dave Ragone worked most closely with the position.

Under Morris, there’s no shortage of tutelage available.

After establishing a staff both felt confident in, Morris and Fontenot started their evaluation period. They looked at every free agent quarterback, did a forward look on the draft and evaluated potential trades.

Morris and the coaching staff provided information to Blank, Fontenot, assistant general manager Kyle Smith and the rest of the college scouting department.

The process resulted in Atlanta identifying its direction: pursuing an established quarterback.

Morris is no stranger to coaching without quality play under center. In his first year as a head coach - 2009 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - he saw three different quarterbacks draw starts.

It was tough ball, he said. It was also a tough lesson that taught him the importance of adding a proven commodity - which ultimately led him back to a familiar face.

One minute after the legal negotiating period opened, Fontenot called former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. Less than two and a half hours later, the two sides agreed to a four-year, $180 million contract with $100 million fully guaranteed.

Blank said the Falcons’ football staff was convicted in Cousins, and he thinks the fanbase is, too. Most of all, after years of trying, so is Blank.

“He's a very high-quality quarterback,” Blank said. “He's performed at a high level for 12 years in the league and feel pretty fortunate having him as a quarterback and look forward to seeing the results with him. He has all the intangibles, not just the tangibles, but the intangibles.

“He's in-house, ready to go to work. He’s working and see how it unfolds.”

Morris has an extensive track record with Cousins; Morris was the defensive backs coach with the now-Washington Commanders when Cousins was drafted in 2012, and the two were colleagues through 2014.

During those times, Morris often walked down the hallways of Washington’s facilities and joined the quarterbacks in their discussions. Over a decade later, it resulted in a self explanatory recruiting pitch to perhaps the NFL’s biggest free agent this spring.

“I think I sold myself,” Morris said, “when I walked in his first rookie meeting room and was able to be really nosy, really engaged, have the ability to speak the language that he speaks and do some of those types of different things. And I think that really was the draw.”

There was more.

Cousins likes Blank’s presence both within the community and Falcons organization. He’s also fond of Robinson’s offense, which has similar principles to the schemes of Minnesota Vikings play callers Kevin Stefanski and Kevin O’Connell dating back to 2018.

For Morris, the pursuit of Cousins was less about Smith, less about Blank, less about the last three years. Really, it was less about everything other than himself and the second opportunity to be an NFL head coach.

Given a roster capable of contending, Morris intends on proving he’s a better coach - a changed coach - than his 21-38 career record indicates.

Signing Cousins is what he perceives as the best avenue toward doing exactly that.

“It was more about the opportunity to go out there and win, because we're built to win,” Morris said. “We got people that we can win with and we got such a great building. I thought it was a good idea to go find a quarterback to help us win right now.”

For that reason, Morris was dissuaded from the idea of a rookie quarterback.

The Falcons have finished 7-10 each of the past three years and have won seven games in five of the past six. Morris is ready to change that - now.

Living through growing pains is part of drafting a young signal caller. Smith tried to do it with Ridder. He lost his job because of it.

Morris admitted it’s hard to say one doesn’t want to live with those rookie growing pains, because those pains can turn into greatness - he used Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes as an example.

But for where the Falcons are, patience isn’t a virtue, it’s the reason quarterback remained a question mark post-Ryan.

And it’s also not a part of Morris’s vocabulary.

“When you can go get an established guy that has gone through some of those bruises, those bumps - I mean, you can't pass that up,” Morris said. “Can't pass an opportunity to go get that kind of a guy to add to your building.”

To some, not having a quarterback could’ve been perceived as a negative during the head coach hiring process. Blank noted each candidate cited the position as a weakness in their interviews.

But Blank believes the vacancy was a positive. He’d rather pick his own spouse than have somebody pick them for him, he said.

The process led Blank to Morris, who chose Cousins as his proverbial spouse. It didn’t take much convincing to get Fontenot on board, either.

Feb 5, 2024; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry / John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

“To bring in a player like that, knowing the mindset, the mentality, the leadership, all those areas - we know he's gonna be a multiplier,” Fontenot said. “We have a lot of good young talent on offense, we have a really good offensive line.

“So, yes, there is excitement right now.”

This time, it’s well-founded.

The Falcons spent the last two offseasons surrounded by rumors, criticism and uncertainty. It took Morris less than 50 days to flip the script.

Now, he’s ready to change more narratives - starting with Atlanta’s playoff drought, which currently sits at six years.

But it’s an opportunity he likely wouldn’t have if not for the Ryan trade, Watson spurn, Mariota addition, Ridder selection and Jackson decline that put the Falcons in a cycle they just couldn’t break and ultimately created ripple effects that reached the top of the organization’s power structure.

“If we had better quarterback play,” Morris said, “I’m probably not standing here.”