With Saturday’s headline-grabbing news that the franchise plans to release QB Kirk Cousins before the start of the new league year on March 17th, it’s time to reassess whether or not the team’s regime should continue to stand as currently constructed. After all, the team just signed Cousins to a four-year, $180M contract this offseason. Perhaps signing a 35-year-old QB coming off a major injury wasn’t such a good idea..
This isn’t the only reason that the GM should be driven out of town however, as his trade excursions, free agency signings, & draft choices have left much to be desired. From Matthew Judon to Marcus Mariota to Kyle Pitts, this team has seen more than its fair share of mistakes since Fontenot took over as the General Manager in 2021. Let’s take a look at a few of the more high-profile mistakes that the team has made in recent years & assess what went wrong as the team’s braintrust is on the hot seat.
Kirk Cousins signing
The Kirk Cousins signing looks even worse now with the aforementioned news that the QB is expected to be released before next season combined with the fact that the veteran was recently benched in favor of a rookie QB (Michael Penix, Jr.) in Week 16. There simply wasn’t any logic behind signing a 35-year-old QB who was coming off of a major Achilles injury to a four-year, $180M deal with $100M guaranteed, along with then immediately selecting his successor (Penix) in the 1st round of the draft.
This decision will ultimately set the team back several years, as there will be dead cap hits spread out between 2025, 2026, and 2027 that will impact the team’s ability to sign marquee free agent players in those years due to a relative lack of cap space. All in all, the team will have given up too much for a 7-7 record & 16 INTs this year.
Matthew Judon trade
Speaking of giving up too much for little return on investment, the 2025 third-round pick that the Falcons will send to the Patriots next year for Matthew Judon’s services looks even worse in hindsight then it did at the time that the transaction was made. Thankfully, the team hedged their bets on Judon at the time of the trade by refusing to sign the 32-year-old pass rusher to a second contract before playing for the team. Still though, the player’s on-field production (3.5 sacks) leaves much to be desired..
The Marcus Mariota experiment
Marcus Mariota signed a two-year, $18.75M deal with the Falcons in 2022 in the wake of the team’s abrupt trade of starting QB Matt Ryan to the Indianapolis Colts. How anyone in the Falcons organization ever came to the conclusion that Mariota would be a viable replacement for Ryan is beyond my understanding as a journalist. Mariota was an embarrassment for the franchise from the start, with the low point being this bad pass attempt in a Thursday night game against the Carolina Panthers.
Deshaun Watson fiasco
Not only did the team miss out on signing Deshaun Watson (really dodging a bullet there), but the PR nightmare that followed included the dismissal of QB Matt Ryan. So not only did the team publicly miss out on signing QB Deshaun Watson, but Matt Ryan was traded away as a result, and from there Fontenot made several mistakes in his attempts at filling the void at the quarterback position with the failed signing of Marcus Mariota, the ill-advised drafting of Desmond Ridder, & the Cousins contract.
Fontenot attempted four key unsuccessful strategies (Watson, Mariota, Ridder, and Cousins) in his failed attempts to replace former franchise QB Matt Ryan, and these moves have resulted in opportunity costs that have set the franchise back for years. That fact alone is grounds for dismissal, but Fontenot has been given a long leash.
Kyle Pitts selection
An anonymous executive with 20-plus seasons of NFL personnel work made the following statements regarding Kyle Pitts in a recent interview, “one of the biggest disappointments I have ever scouted. Some flashes, but rarely regularly involved in the offense… [he’s] definitely a bust based on expectations and who they passed up.”
Here are just a few of the players that Fontenot passed over in the 2021 NFL Draft in favor of selecting TE Kyle Pitts with the No. 4 overall pick: WR Ja’Marr Chase (No. 5), WR Jaylen Waddle (No. 6), OT Penei Sewell (No. 7), & EDGE Micah Parsons (No. 12). Selecting any of these players would have made sense for the team at the time given their roster needs, but Chase & Sewell in particular are on Hall of Fame trajectories. Fontenot’s selection of Pitts is actually emblematic of his first draft class as a whole, which outside of Drew Dalman (C) has failed to produce any main starting players.
Beyond that, one could say that the selection of Kyle Pitts over other talented players is emblematic of Terry Fontenot’s tenure as General Manager of the Atlanta Falcons. There were many decisions that were made during his tenure thus far where all of the options were considered and ultimately the worst option would always win out. That’s why, in this sportswriter’s humble opinion, it is time for the team to move on.
The Sports Beacon 