FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Kirk Cousins was tapped out. He sat down at a table inside the cafeteria at the Atlanta Falcons facility and told some teammates he was at a loss.
No, it had nothing to do with football. Cousins, the longtime quarterback, had run out of good family movies to watch with his sons, Cooper and Turner. So, he polled the table.
"My boys are 7 and 6 and I've exhausted all the good movies I know of to watch," Cousins said early in training camp. "Friday night is movie night at the Cousins house and I said, 'You got any deep cut suggestions?'"
Wide receiver David Sills chimed in with one: Surf's Up, an animated mockumentary about surfing penguins. Cousins took his advice, and the film was a hit inside the home in suburban Georgia.
That's how the summer has mostly been for Cousins: mild and basically business as usual. The one exception, of course, is the reps that the 14-year veteran has been taking. They're with the Falcons' second-team offense, rather than the first-team offense he played with for most of last season.
Cousins lost his job as starter last season after a stretch with nine interceptions against one touchdown pass in five games. Michael Penix Jr., then a rookie, was named the team's starter in Week 16 -- and beyond. The team made it clear Penix was its guy moving forward.
Cousins, now 37, was dealing with injuries. He was a year removed from a torn right Achilles and then hurt the elbow and shoulder of his throwing arm after taking a big hit against the New Orleans Saints in Week 10. Cousins was hoping the Falcons would release him, so he could be a starter somewhere else this season. He even lobbied for it in a phone meeting with owner Arthur Blank.
After being absent for most of the voluntary offseason program in the spring, Cousins was back for mandatory minicamp and said that any conversations about him wanting to be elsewhere were in the past and his focus now was on helping the Falcons win.
And he has worked toward that in his new role. Cousins has performed very well in training camp, arguably better than he did last summer with the first-team offense. He's been efficient every practice and coach Raheem Morris has noted that Cousins appears more mobile now than this time last year.
While working with the second-team offense, Cousins gets most of his reps against the first-team defense. Cousins, with all of his experience, presents a challenge the starters don't normally see at this juncture.
"It's incredible," Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss said. "It's like, dude, he's so good. He's really good. He's a special player and just his processing, his accuracy and just his ability to switch it up, he's playing a game out there. We're not just getting practice reps, you know what I mean? It's not like the guy that's a second-[teamer], or a rookie that's just trying to remember what his plays are."
Falcons passing game coordinator TJ Yates said that Cousins, like last year, has been great to have in the quarterback room. He said sometimes he and quarterbacks coach DJ Williams will just sit back and let Cousins and Penix go back and forth with one another.
"It's never going to be the same as it was, but it's different in a different way," Yates said, referring to when Cousins was the starter. "But I think it's better just because Kirk has been an absolute pro in every part of the process so far in how much he helps Mike and helps all the other quarterbacks in the room and at the same time getting himself prepared to go out there and perform. It is not an easy task for him to do and it's foreign to him, but he's handling everything like a pro and we're lucky to have him in the room."
Those sentiments have made their way to the head coach, who wasn't surprised. Morris and Cousins go back to their time in Washington when Cousins was a young player and Morris was a wide receivers coach. He knew there would be skeptics who expected Cousins to be a distraction.
"He's not that," Morris said. "And those are the things that I was really confident in when I knew he can be here and do whatever needs to get done.
"And again, I don't blame him for wanting to go somewhere else and try to start. I [would] too. It is what it is. That's not his fault. I think it's about the explanation of us being absolutely up-front and personal with him, and we've got the best results with him."
Meanwhile, Cousins has gotten some great results working with second-team wide receivers Sills, Chris Blair, Jesse Matthews and Dylan Drummond, all of whom have performed quite well in camp.
And when it comes to his injuries, Cousins said "this is the best I've felt."
Certainly, if there is a tantalizing offer, the Falcons could still look to move Cousins in a trade. But the other team would have to pick up some of Cousins' guaranteed $27.5 million this season, as well as a $10 million roster bonus in 2026. Cousins also has a no-trade clause and he has made it clear he'll only go somewhere he can start.
As for now, though, it has been a pretty mundane summer for the Falcons when it comes to their quarterback situation. Other than that dramatic struggle to find a good kids' film for Friday night at Chez Cousins.
"[Sills] wouldn't back down on Surf's Up, and I'm like, 'David, you kind of backed yourself in a corner. If it's not good, you have no credibility.' But it was actually awesome," Cousins said. "So, now [Sills and I] have this inside joke that we quote Surf's Up together. It's pretty corny, but it works for us."