Former quarterback Alex Smith torches Falcons for ‘organizational disaster’

Terry Fontenot raised some eyebrows at his season-ending press conference on Thursday. After a late-season shift to rookie Michael Penix, the Falcons’ general manager said the team was prepared to enter 2025 with Kirk Cousins as its backup quarterback.

“Kirk is a great man and he’s been great support for Mike,” Fontenot said Thursday. “We are very comfortable moving forward with him as the backup.”

Penix was phenomenal over his first three NFL starts, nearly leading Atlanta (8-9) to the playoffs. In last week’s season-finale, he took the Panthers into overtime before Carolina prevailed, 44-38. The eighth-overall selection in the 2024 draft, Penix also lost in overtime the prior week at Washington. He finished with 775 passing yards, including three touchdowns and three interceptions, and added a rushing touchdown.

Alex Smith was the starting quarterback in Kansas City when John Dorsey and the Chiefs traded up to select Patrick Mahomes in the first round of the 2017 draft. Like Penix, Mahomes got his first NFL start late in his rookie season. But Smith sees the situations monumentally different.

“I don’t know why the vibes would be good in Atlanta right now because from my perspective, this is an organizational disaster,” Smith said on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown. “And like the last calendar year, think about this, the personnel department went out and thought that Kirk Cousins was good enough to give him a $180 million contract. Then, you spend a top 10 pick on a quarterback, and now after 14 games, you’ve changed your mind, you thrust this kid in — and again, I think he has a bright future — but with three games left, you’re in the middle of a division race. There there’s no time to develop. And I know, again, they love him, and the future is bright, and I do think so.

“I think that was so unfair to put on this kid. And this is the reality: You paid Kirk Cousins $90 million for 14 games. Okay? You have a $40 million cap hit next year. The ramifications of this are going to echo into next season. And again, this is what dysfunction looks like.”

Despite Fontenot’s comments, it’s hard to imagine Cousins wanting to stay in Atlanta. With so many quarterback-needy teams and the lack of deep talent in the draft, surely there would be a team willing to acquire Cousins. But the Falcons surely want that team to take on the quarterback’s contract. Per Jeremy Fowler, the only guarantee on the books for 2025 is his $27.5 million base salary.

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