Kirk Cousins’ tenure as the starting quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons is just now taking flight. Matt Ryan’s professional career, which featured 14 years under center in Atlanta, just made its final descent.

But the Falcons may spend the next several years watching a brand of football that hasn’t been seen since Ryan was traded in the spring of 2022.

“I think there’s a lot of similarities,” Falcons right guard Chris Lindstrom said at Tuesday’s press conference. “I think both those guys have a lot of experience, are great leaders and both extremely successful.”

Ryan is the Falcons’ all-time leader in passing yards (59,735) and touchdowns (367), two categories in which he ranks top 10 in NFL history. He’s also played more games in franchise history than anyone else who’s donned the red and black.

In the two years that followed Ryan’s departure, the Falcons started three faces at quarterback – Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke. None proved to be formidable short- or long-term options.

So, Atlanta aggressively pursued the 35-year-old Cousins, a 12-year veteran with 150 games of experience – and proven results – under his belt.

The Falcons signed Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract March 13. He’s spent the last month and a half perusing the grounds of the team’s headquarters in Flowery Branch, bouncing in and out of meetings and training rooms as he recovers from a torn Achilles suffered Oct. 29.

During his introduction the night he was signed, Cousins stressed the importance of building bonds with teammates as soon as possible. Evidently, he’s off to a strong start.

“When you get here and watch how the guy works, it’s remarkable,” Lindstrom said. “The way he interacts with us has been great. You can’t ask for anything more. You just see the way he approaches every single day, the intensity in every single rep and the purpose behind it.”

Stylistically, Ryan and Cousins are both pocket passers known for their precision and intelligence. They’ll never be confused for dual threats, but they don’t need to be.

Both players have four Pro Bowl nods to their name. Ryan earned the nickname “Matty Ice” for his late-game performances, guiding 46 game-winning drives. He averaged one such drive per every five career starts. Cousins’ average is the same.

There’s an element of veteran savvy present in each – a calm, trustworthy voice and the right arm to match it. Lindstrom worked alongside Ryan for three years, seeing these traits each day.

Safety Jessie Bates III, who signed with the Falcons last spring, never played with Ryan. He does, however, know the value Cousins’ experience provides to the team, let alone the offense.

“His presence alone, just being there is next level,” Bates said. “The coaches can’t be out on the field too much, but when you have a guy like Kirk Cousins, he can go out there and run a whole script. That presence is something that’s priceless.”

Cousins has been a topic of hot discussion in and around Flowery Branch of late, as the Falcons drafted his potential successor – first-round pick Michael Penix Jr. – before he played his first snap in Atlanta.

But the Falcons remain firmly behind Cousins and the things he can accomplish in the years ahead, watching as he’s lived up to the billing they expected when dishing out a sizable contract this spring.

“The exciting thing about him is we know his makeup and his mentality, and we know it fits what we’re about and this culture that we’ve been working hard to build,” general manager Terry Fontenot said. “So, you definitely feel the impact.”

The Atlanta Falcons wrapped up their 2024 NFL Draft class on Saturday evening and quickly got to work signing 10 undrafted free agents (UDFA).

Atlanta didn’t address the secondary in the draft, but three of the 10 players they signed were cornerbacks. They also added a pair of offensive linemen, quarterback, two offensive linemen, two wide receivers, tight end, and a punter.

Here’s a list of the Falcons 2024 UDFA class including their college bios.

Ryan Coll, OL, 6-5, 324, Richmond

• Started all 13 games
• Named a Third Team AP and Phil Steele All-American
• Earned DIvision I FCS All-ECAC honors
• Helped the Spiders rank second in the CAA in completion percentage
• Helped the Spiders average 345 yards and 28.2 points per game
• Helped move Richmond to fourth in the CAA and 19th nationally in first downs
• Named First Team All-CAA
• Named Top Offensive Lineman in Virginia by Touchdown Club of Richmond
• Named a Preseason All-American by Phil Steele
• Named First Team Preseason All-CAA by Phil Steele
• Named Preseason All-America by Stats Perform
• Of 720 names to make the list, was one of 45 FCS players to be added to the Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List

JaQuae Jackson, WR, 6-2, 190, Rutgers

2023 (Senior): Played in all 13 games with 12 starts at wide receiver … signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Falcons … placed second on the team with 361 receiving yards … totaled 22 receptions with one for a touchdown … had at least one catch in 10 games … rated as the ninth-best wide receiver in the Big Ten by Pro Football Focus … saw action in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl win over Miami (12/28) … added a 16-yard catch at No. 12 Penn State (11/18) … collected three catches for 41 yards and a score versus No. 1/3 Ohio State (11/4) … picked up 46 yards at Wisconsin (10/7) … recorded four catches for 71 yards against Wagner (9/30) … added three receptions for 37 yards at No. 2 Michigan (9/23) … totaled a season-high 95 receiving yards on four catches with a long of 61 versus Temple (9/9) … contributed a reception in Rutgers debut versus Northwestern (9/3).

John Paddock, QB, 6-0, 190, Illinois

• All-Big Ten Honorable Mention (coaches)
• Played in seven games with three starts at quarterback
• Made first Illinois start in 48-45 win vs. Indiana (11/11/23), throwing for 507 yards while tossing four TD passes, including the OT game-winner to Isaiah Williams, to earn B1G Offensive Player of the Week honors
• Paddock’s 507 passing yards vs. Indiana marked a Memorial Stadium record, the second-most in Illinois history, and the most ever by a winning Illini quarterback
• Led Illinois to a win at Minnesota (11/4/23) after entering the game for the first time with 1:25 remaining and facing a 4th-and-11 from the Minnesota 15-yard line with Illinois trailing by five. Paddock needed just 35 seconds to drive the Illini 85 yards on three straight completions, including a 46-yard game-winning touchdown throw to Isaiah Williams. Paddock finished the game 3-for-3 passing for 85 yards, one touchdown, and a 448.0 passer rating in one of the all-time great performances by an Illini back-up quarterback.

Nolan Potter, OL, 6-6, 301, Northern Illinois

• Earned All-MAC honors from league coaches for the third time, including back-to-back first team honors in 2022 and 2023.
• An honorable mention All-American by Phil Steele.
• Also made the Phil Steele and PFF All-MAC first team.
• Named to the Outland Trophy watch list.
• Qualified for the Academic All-MAC Team for the third time. 
• Served as one of the Huskies’ permanent team captain. 
• Led the way for a rushing offense ranked 36th in the country as NIU averaged 179.6 yards per game on the ground. 
• THe Huskies ranked 19th nationally in fewest sacks allowed, surrendering just 16 sacks in 13 games.
• Cleared holes for All-MAC running back Antario Brown who rushed for 1,296 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry.
• NIU backs posted six 100-yard rushing games, including a 280-yard performance by Brown at Akron. 
• Helped pave the way for the Huskies’ 380 rushing yards in win at Akron (10-7). 
• NIU had 506 yards of total offense at Central Michigan (10-31), second-highest total of the season.
• Offensive line dominated as NIU ran for 287 yards on 50 carries in win over Western Michigan (11-14) 

Jayden Price, CB, 6-0,184, North Dakota State

2023 SEASON (SENIOR): Returned to North Dakota State for an extra year of eligibility due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the 2020 season…Started all 15 games at cornerback…Honorable mention All-Missouri Valley Football Conference return specialist…Averaged 14.2 yards per punt return on 16 attempts…Scored on a 66-yard punt return against Murray State and broke the NDSU career record for punt return touchdowns with an 82-yard score at South Dakota in the quarterfinals of the NCAA FCS playoffs…Finished his career third on the NDSU all-time list for career punt returns (63), punt return yards (910) and yards per return (14.44)…Made a career-high eight tackles at South Dakota State…Had 2.0 tackles for loss including a sack against Drake in the first round of the NCAA FCS playoffs…Intercepted passes against Drake and Missouri State…Finished sixth on the team with 47 total tackles and was second with four pass breakups…One of six team captains.

Ryan Sanborn, P, 6-3, 211, Texas

SENIOR (2023): Honorable mention All-Big 12 … appeared in all 14 games … punted 40 times for 1,828 yards … averaged 45.7 yards per punt, the seventh-best single-season average in program history … had 15 punts of 50-plus yards with a long of 64 … recorded 15 punts inside the 20 with nine fair catches and two touchbacks … punted twice for 89 yards with one inside the 20 in the season-opener against Rice … booted three punts for 150 yards including a 56-yarder the landed inside the 20 at No. 3 Alabama … named to the Ray’s 8 list for his performance against the Crimson Tide … punted four times against Wyoming for a season-high 193 yards against Wyoming with one inside the 20 and one fair catch … flipped the field three times of more than 50 yards against the Cowboys including a long of 56 yards … punted four times for 179 yards at Baylor … had a long of 50 yards against the Bears with one wait catch and one inside the 20 … had a punt of 38 yards against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry that was fair caught at the OU 13-yard line … booted three punts for 159 yards at Houston with two over 50 yards, including a 59-yarder … had one punt inside the 20 against the Cougars … totaled three punts for 162 yards (54 ypp) against BYU … had two punts of 50-plus yards against the Cougars including a season-long 64-yarder … tallied four punts for 172 yards with two for 50 yards against Kansas State with two inside the 20 … totaled four punts for 157 yards at TCU … registered four punts for 171 yards at Iowa State with one landing inside the 20 and two punts for over 50 yards … punted twice for 72 yards against Texas Tech with both ending inside the 20 … had a 51-yard punt against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship Game victory … named to the preseason watch list for the Ray Guy Award … chosen first-team Preseason All-Big 12 by Pro Football Focus and third-team Preseason All-Big 12 by Athlon Sports.

Anthony Sao, CB, 6-1, 200, MidAmerica Nazarene

Listed as a defensive back by MNU, Sao had 24 tackles and a sack for the Kansas University in 2023. Originally from Compton, Calif., there’s not a lot of bio information on him. The Falcons really did their homework on this one.

Austin Stogner, TE, 6-6, 258, Oklahoma

Played first three seasons at Oklahoma before transferring to South Carolina for the 2022 campaign and then back to OU for his final season … started 33 of his 59 career games (23 of 47 contests as a Sooner) and caught 84 passes for 1,060 yards and 10 touchdowns (nine TDs at OU). 2023: Started all 13 games … caught 17 passes for 196 yards and one touchdown … averaged 11.5 yards per catch … tallied at least one reception in 11 games … recipient of Alamo Bowl Sportsmanship Award … caught two passes for 26 yards vs. TCU (11/24) … recorded a 10-yard reception at BYU (11/18) … served as a game captain and registered a season-high 69 yards and a TD on four catches (including a season-long 35-yarder) vs. West Virginia (11/11) … caught three passes for 24 yards vs. Texas (10/7) … had one reception for 19 yards vs. Iowa State (9/30).

Trey Vaval, CB, 6-0, 170, Minnesota State-Mankato

Had a kick return for a touchdown as a senior in 2023 and also posted 31 tackles with two interceptions. 2022: Played and started in all of Minnesota State’s 13 games… Tied for sixth ranked on the team with 38 total tackles… Also had 29 solo tackles and six assists… Saw a season-high of eight tackles vs. U-Mary… Was named to the D2CCA All-Super Region First Team, All NSIC First Team… All-NSIC Second team and was named NSIC Special Teams Player of the Week…Named to the D2CCA All-American Second Team…Received a Don Hansen All-American Honorable Mention.

Isaiah Wooden, WR, 5-9, 170, Southern Utah

• Appeared in all 11 games for the Thunderbirds

• Caught 61 passes for a total of 904 yards and a long of 66

• Scored 14 touchdowns on the season

We all sign up for baseball knowing that it isn’t fair. You can square up a ball perfectly and have it go for an out; you can throw a gem on the mound and still get tagged with an “L.” Perhaps nothing is more frustrating in baseball than being a pitcher and seeing how your hours of hard work can be undone with one swing.

Tonight Bryce Miller outdueled Braves starter Max Fried in every way except, unfortunately, where it counted—on the scoreboard—and the beautiful sand castle he’d spent hours painstakingly building threatened to collapse under the tidal wave of the Braves’ offense. However, Miller beat back the current, showcasing just how much he’s grown since the last time he faced these Braves, and the Mariners came through with just enough offense—not enough to give Miller a win, mind you, because as aforementioned, baseball is not fair, but enough that the Mariners were able to bank another win, which is all anyone—including Miller—really cares about.

The last time Miller faced Atlanta, in May of 2023, it was just his fourth start, but the rookie held the powerful Braves lineup at bay into the seventh inning, allowing just one run to score, working around a little traffic on the bases and striking out four. He left after allowing a leadoff base hit in the seventh and then walking a runner; both inherited runners would later score.

Tonight, Miller bested himself, this time working through the seventh inning, striking out 10 and carrying a perfect game into the sixth inning, and a no-hitter into the seventh. In a night that was maybe under-billed as a pitching duel between two of the game’s brightest young starters, Miller bested Fried in innings pitches—seven to Fried’s six—and issued just one walk to Fried’s two. He collected more whiffs, and struck out 10 to Fried’s 7. But when Miller departed the game after the seventh, he was in line for the loss, with the Mariners down 1-0.

“Last year, if the fastball wasn’t working or if I gave up a couple hits on it, it was like, I guess I’m gonna keep throwing it and see what happens,” said Miller postgame. “But now I’ve got other stuff, and third time through, they were seeing stuff they hadn’t seen, or they hadn’t seen much of. So it’s big getting into the back half of the game.”

“That’s about as good an outing we’ve seen Bryce maybe ever have,” said Scott Servais postgame. “That was some kind of electric fastball he was featuring tonight.”

Miller went nine up and nine down in the first three innings with five strikeouts: two in the first, one in the second, and two in the third, in a nice little palindromic run. He threw seven of nine first-pitch strikes and demonstrated arguably the best command over his four-seam fastball we’ve seen yet this season. It was a vintage* (*early 2023) Bryce Miller performance, where he leaned heavily on his four-seamer, but sprinkled in his fun new toys of the two-seamer, sweeper, and splitter to pick up outs on the ground and at the plate.

Miller’s one bobble came in the seventh inning; with the perfecto gone on a walk to Travis d’Arnaud in the sixth that was just as quickly erased by former Mariner Jarred Kelenic grounding into a double play on the sweeper, Miller’s new favorite toy to deploy against lefties, Ronald Acuña Jr. opened the seventh inning with a base hit on a fastball away that Dylan Moore, playing in place of the injured J.P. Crawford, couldn’t quite corral. He then rudely stole second and third. I thought the South was all about manners?

Miller then made one of his few mistakes of the night, leaving a fastball in the middle of the plate to Ozzie Albies that would have scored Acuña from first even if he’d been wearing one of those boots they put on cars with unpaid fines. It had the makings of a kind of meltdown inning that plagued Miller at times last season. But Bryce Miller 2.0, fully loaded with new accessories, is a different animal than 2023 Bryce Miller. He came back to strike out Austin Riley looking at a perfectly located slider, nailed Matt Olson with a slider in the same location for another backwards K, and got Marcell Ozuna lunging after a slider for an easy flyout. Deep South, meet Big Tex.

Servais called those the biggest three outs of the game. “That just shows me so much where he’s at, maturity-wise. So many guys, when they have a night like that going and it starts to get away from them, they just lose it, and he didn’t, which is a credit to him.”

“Bryce Miller, he’s a unique cat. It’s Big Tex. It’s always Big Tex. He doesn’t get too high, he doesn’t get too low, and you saw that play out tonight.”

Meanwhile, the Mariners did what they could against Max Fried, created in a lab to be a nightmare for the spin/breaking ball-allergic 2024 Mariners. They did work some counts: Rodríguez and Haniger both worked full counts in the first, and Mitch Garver actually worked a walk in the second, but he was undone by Cal Raleigh swinging through a fastball for a strikeout, Ty France lunging after a curveball for a strikeout, and Jorge Polanco actually making contact but for a soft popout. Polanco also gets a star for a ten-pitch at-bat in the fourth which ended in a strikeout, and it tells you a little bit about the quality of these other at-bats that a ten-pitch strikeout is worthy enough to note. Credit where it’s due, though: Fried’s pitch count was pushing into the sixties in the bottom of the fourth, while Bryce Miller was at a trim 46 (with 33 strikes!) headed into the top of the fifth.

However, even with Fried out of the game, the Mariners went down quietly against Pierce Johnson in the seventh, but were able to get a little traction against Joe Jiménez in the eighth when Ty France led off with a walk. With a righty on the mound, the Mariners finally let Josh Rojas out of his platoon cage, and he of course immediately got a hit and ended the no-hitter. Right now Rojas is serving the role of 2023 J.P. Crawford, bailing this team out when they desperately need people on base, and he needs to be in every game regardless of handedness.

The Mariners actually had Jiménez on the ropes, but right after Rojas broke up the no-hitter (which would have been that most grotesque of creatures, the combined no-hitter), Luis Urías struck out. I wasn’t listening, but the sound Dave Sims made was described to me as “soul-hollowing.” However, pinch-hitter Luke Raley kept hope alive by sneaking a single through virtually the same spot, loading the bases for Julio and Haniger with one out. Surely one of them could cash in the run, right? Surely not, as Julio went after a slider and popped it out to shallow left field, and Mitch Haniger—who has quietly been on a pretty rough run these past couple weeks—struck out, lunging after a slider that ended up in the other batter’s box.

At this point, although it did not feel fair to Bryce Miller to hand him this loss, it felt fair that the Mariners would lose this game. They’d had chances, and squandered those chances. Miller had been better than Fried, but the Mariners hitters had not been better than the Braves hitters. Sometimes, that’s just how it goes.

Until it isn’t.

Braves closer Raisel Iglesias was unavailable today, having pitched yesterday, so Atlanta brought in lefty A.J. Mintner. Jorge Polanco greeted him by leaping on the first fastball he saw, lacing a base hit down the left field line. That brought up Mitch Garver, who’s been scuffling at the plate, to put it mildly. Garver got ahead 3-0, before taking a pair of pitches—one borderline, one less so—to make it a full count.

Then Minter left a cutter in the middle of the plate. And this time, Garver did not miss it.

“I think he can breathe now,” said Servais. “He got a big hit. And once you get a big hit with a new team, it does help.”

That was Garver’s first career walkoff home run at any level, and he described it as a “relief”—not just to have ended the game, but also to have contributed during a time when he’s been scuffling at the plate.

“In a time when things aren’t going my way and I’m not feeling quite like myself, to be able to come through for the team in any way shape or form, that’s a huge W.”

Tonight Miller’s sterling outing was threatened to be undone by one swing; at the same time, Garver’s frustrating stretch of play was also undone by one good swing. It’s a good reminder that as frustrating as baseball can be, as Garver says,

“The game gives back to you at times, too.”