Falcons' Kirk Cousins' comments on arm injury show risks of paying aging quarterbacks

Kirk Cousins discussed his struggles in his first (and potentially only) season with the Atlanta Falcons on Tuesday, and in doing so, showed just how risky paying him was in the first place.

Speaking on Good Morning Football on Tuesday (via Marc Raimondi of ESPN,) Cousins explained his significant dip in performance in the latter half of the season, blaming a shoulder and elbow injury suffered in Week 10 against the New Orleans Saints.

"I, against the Saints, got hit pretty good in my right shoulder and elbow and from there kind of dealing with that was something I was working through and just never really could get it to where I wanted it," Cousins said.

From Week 10, when Atlanta was 6-3, until Cousins was benched, the team went 0-4, and wound up missing the playoffs.

Cousins was in the first year of a four-year, $180 million contract last year, and $90 million of that deal is fully guaranteed. It's become clear that Cousins won't start again in Atlanta, and now the question becomes whether he's cut, traded or kept around to back up Michael Penix Jr.

Cousins' collapse (and frankly, he wasn't all that good prior to Week 10, either) illustrates the massive risks that come along with paying older quarterbacks. If they're healthy, everything is great. But injuries have a way of just sort of...hanging around as you get older. Their impact is greater, they may keep you out longer or reduce your effectiveness more than they would have early in your career.

In the case of Cousins, we saw how slim the margin for error was. He was already having an inconsistent season in Atlanta, and that inconsistency went to just plain bad as soon as his arm got hurt. It may not have been bad enough to keep him out, but it was just enough to sap his ability to compete.

the thing is, it was probably an injury that wouldn't have impacted Cousins' performance much at all earlier in his career. But now, at 36, the quarterback struggle so much that he might not get another shot in Atlanta, and the market for him figures to be severely depressed from what it was even a year ago.

Cousins thinks he has plenty left in the tank, per Raimondi.

"I definitely still feel like I have a lot of good football left in me," Cousins said.

Whether anyone else agrees after last season's disaster remains to be seen. After all, Cousins isn't getting any younger, and the injuries aren't going to get any less impactful in the coming years.

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Falcons' Kirk Cousins' comments on arm injury highlight risks of paying aging quarterbacks

By Sam Westmoreland | 1:14 PM EST