Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins is medically cleared nine months after his torn Achilles tendon, but he probably won’t see any live action until the regular season starts.
Cousins said today that he wants to play in the preseason, but head coach Raheem Morris wants to be more cautious and will probably hold him out until the September 8 opener against the Steelers.
“I want to play, but I think that ask fell on deaf ears,” Cousins said of the preseason. “Raheem’s motto is, ‘You’re not playing,’ and I don’t know if I’m letting the cat out of the bag or anything, but his approach was, that’s just not how we want to do things. I’m sure — maybe I can persuade him. Maybe there’s a conversation. Who knows how the Dolphins’ practices go? Maybe he wants to see us in the game. There is just so much that could change. Yeah, I think seeing live bullets and playing is helpful, but I also understand the logic behind not doing it. And everything we do is calculated, and that will be as well.”
NFL teams usually sit their starting quarterbacks out of the entire preseason, and Morris spent his last three years with the Rams, who are one of the most cautious teams about not risking injuries to starters in the preseason. So it’s no surprise that Cousins appears poised to spend the three preseason games standing on the sideline.