Falcons docked 5th round pick, fined for ‘improper contact’ with Kirk Cousins, others

The league’s long and winding investigation into whether or not the Atlanta Falcons tampered with Kirk Cousins has come to a close at last, and it turns out all the drama over the draft picks they’d lose and the punishment they’d face was predictably a bit overblown. Even I’m a little surprised just how overblown.

The NFL has taken a 2025 fifth round draft pick from Atlanta, leaving them with just five selections next year, and fined the franchise $250,000. An additional $50,000 fine was levied at general manager Terry Fontenot specifically, although the league has yet to announce what he did besides presiding over the process that apparently violated the league’s anti-tampering rules.

The punishment being relatively light is especially striking given that the Falcons apparently had what the league is calling “improper contact” not just with Cousins, who somewhat infamously seemed to allude to it out loud in a press conference, but with wide receiver Darnell Mooney and tight end Charlie Woerner. Teams are allowed to talk to player representation during the two day legal tampering window, which has become something of a farce in and of itself given that deals are announced during it, but can’t have direct contact with players and club representatives. The league apparently found evidence that happened here.

We’re not sure what happened with Mooney and Woerner, but with Cousins there was plenty of talk about team representatives including athletic staff during the window where he was not supposed to be in contact with them, including from Cousins himself. Cousins also mentioned being involved in recruiting Mooney to the Falcons, while Kyle Pitts evidently reached out to Cousins. All that we really know from what has been announced is that the team discussed “travel arrangements and logistical matters” with players, which is a no-no. The league obviously didn’t think the Falcons got up to anything particularly nefarious.

Considering that legal tampering is likely rife with this sort of activity but the Falcons just were careless enough to get caught, the punishment here feels more like a slap on the wrist and a waved finger from the league, one intended to help keep teams from being too out in the open about their pre-new league year dealings. If the Falcons had done something truly egregious here you’d likely see that reflected in what the league handed out, but clearly even though three players were involved it was viewed as a borderline case. The NFL will keep looking to make legal tampering a pre-free agency spectacle and teams will continue to skirt the rules without flouting them, and if I have one wish from all this it’s that the Falcons will learn to do so more carefully going forward to avoid being A) a talking point for league observers for months on end and B) on the hook for draft picks they really shouldn’t be losing.

It’s nice to know that the “significant punishment” Adam Schefter and others alluded to was, in the grand scheme of things, not all that significant. The Falcons will be dealing with diminished draft capital and will have to fork over money they’d rather hold on to, which is less than ideal, but the fact that it’s a third day pick means it certainly could have been worse. Now we can look forward to training camp and the season in earnest without that dark little cloud hanging over the franchise.