FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Kirk Cousins has a mission this season: Win games, of course. Bring a Super Bowl to Atlanta, of course. But first, he wants his new, young teammates to understand his taste in film.
“I'll say the lines from 'Heavyweights' with Ben Stiller and nobody will respond,” Cousins, 35, said, referring to the 29-year-old movie. “Jake Matthews, 32, will be sitting across the locker room from me and he'll be laughing because he knows the lines.”
Not only is Cousins, in true Cousins fashion, already planning a viewing party to introduce his other new teammates, but, in true dad fashion, he's extrapolated a message from a weight-camp comedy filled with fat jokes and references to “Seymour Butt.”
“Ben Stiller used to say about him before he lost the weight, 'I know you, because I was you,'” Cousins said. “I say that to my teammates a lot, when I see them doing something stupid I say, 'I know you, because I was you.'”
One gets the impression that if Cousins could tell all of the Falcons' young players to get in a minivan and drive them to the Super Bowl, he'd do it in a flash.
As the Falcons' “offseason” training wraps up and Year 1 of the franchise's reboot begins to take shape, some elements of this new era are becoming clear.
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Between Cousins, who was acquired for a nine-figure contract as a free agent, and Michael Pennis Jr., the No. 8 overall pick, there is a clear and established pecking order that everyone follows.
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New head coach Raheem Morris has created an atmosphere of trust but testing, allowing individual units and players to develop at their own pace and making course corrections when necessary.
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Cousins brings his signature intense, sports-dad energy to Atlanta, and the team is working at full speed.
This time of the offseason, everyone is playing to the same familiar tune. Coaches stress that every player is a future All-Pro on a team that is a smooth-running engine of destruction. The media reiterates the same points. Atlanta drafted a franchise quarterback right after signing one. The Falcons are coming off the longest playoff drought outside of the Broncos and Jets. Players love their teammates and are hopeful about the upcoming season. Fans just want to watch football. And lo and behold, Kirk Cousins couldn't be happier.
“I've always tried to be a questioner,” Cousins said in response to a Yahoo Sports question about the generation gap, “so I think if you ask questions, you learn a lot about people, about your teammates. That's always been my strategy. They're great people, we have fun, so I don't really feel like there's a gap.”
Sure, there's only so much you can learn about a team in June, whether you're a coach, player, analyst, or fan. Players spend time in classrooms and practice. Quarterbacks throw slick passes that sometimes go deep and sometimes land in tiny, vanishing gaps. (When the quarterback makes his move, you know it because cheers rang out from both sidelines.)
Cousins, wearing a red No. 18 jersey, was clearly having fun, steering the first-team offense, exaggeratedly pumping his elbows like a race walker as they advanced down the field and, as Morris pointed out, keeping the mood light in the huddle, punctuating his play-calling with dad jokes like, “A lot of football players out there, boys!”
“When I walk into a huddle, I try to make sure I'm not just boring, I'm communicating well, I have presence, I'm charismatic,” Cousins said. “My humor tends to be pretty dry, so if I'm not focused, it might not come across.”
“He's fun to watch,” Morris said, “and it always puts a smile on my face when I'm standing behind him watching him play. … He's a lot of fun to be around.”
“He commands a room and gets everybody's attention, and that's what you need,” tight end Kyle Pitts said. “He's joking around when he wants to, but he gets serious when he needs to.” Pitts called Cousins ”Super Dad,” which might be the most perfect nickname ever for Kirk.
Bijan Robinson, who sits at the locker next to Cousins, is sometimes reminded just how big the age gap between the two is. “I feel like Kirk is almost my dad's age,” joked the 22-year-old Robinson. “But I love the guy. We joke around with him all the time. I joke around with him all the time, and he takes it so well, so easily.”
“Honestly, it's a blessing,” Cousins said, “and I hope that one day the gap will be even bigger because it means I'm still playing and I'm still connected.”
And as a father, Cousins found a way to turn the generational gap beyond his own control into a personal lesson: “Maybe it'll inspire me to be a better parent to my sons.”
OTAs will wrap up this week and then the hitting season will begin, but before then Cousins has some old to-do items to check off.
“I'm going to Texas Roadhouse. [Tuesday]”It's our way of checking out chains. Rest in peace, Red Lobster,” Cousins said.
What could be more fatherly than taking the crew out to a chain restaurant? The Falcons may or may not be a great football team, but there's already a family atmosphere.
