Atlanta, GA

ESPN Reveals NFL’s Most Impactful New Addition

Published

6 months ago

August 3, 2024

ESPN Reveals NFL’s Most Impactful New Addition

Heading into 2023, the Atlanta Falcons were seen as a donut team – a big hole in the middle where the quarterback should be.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank splashed the cash in the offseason to fill that hole with $100-million guaranteed to former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.

ESPN’s Mike Clay deems Cousins as the most impactful newcomer, free agent or draft pick, in the NFL.

“The implications of Cousins to Atlanta can’t be overstated,” wrote Clay on ESPN+. “The Falcons immediately became the NFC South favorites after the deal, and we should now see the true potential of recent top-10 draft picks Bijan Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts. Cousins led the NFL with 18 passing touchdowns prior to suffering a torn Achilles last season, and he will help an Atlanta team that was 25th in QBR last season (41.2).”

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Cousins’s 4-year, $180-million contract looks like a relative bargain after the big money deals signed by Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love, and Tua Tagovailoa in recent weeks. Cousins carries a $25-million cap hit in 2024 for the Falcons, less than the $28.5-million dead cap hit the Vikings are taking on Cousins this year from void years in his last contract.

Atlanta has the flexibility to get out from Cousins’s contract in two years with mitigated cap ramifications. The idea is for the then-38-year-old Cousins to hand the reins to No. 8 pick Michael Penix Jr.

Clay’s ranking of Cousins as the No. 1 new addition in the NFL runs counter to his analytics colleague Seth Walder who graded the Falcons as having the 29th best (or 4th worst) offseason in the NFL.

We wrote at the time: “If a team fills its biggest need, at the game’s most important position, with the No. 2 ranked free agent, on a financially manageable contract… it warrants a grade significantly better than bottom five in the NFL.”

Seems Clay would agree.

The Falcons first opponent of the season is the Pittsburgh Steelers who look to be starting Russell Wilson in Atlanta on September 8th. Wilson checked in at No. 21 on the list, with Clay hedging his bets, not putting Wilson higher, in case Justin Fields wins the job in Pittsburgh.

Atlanta and Pittsburgh had arguably the worst quarterback play in the NFL last season. The NFL scheduling gurus made sure to amp up the storylines for Week 1 pitting two-new starters against each other while disgraced-former head coach Arthur Smith conducts from the Steelers sidelines.

Will Cousins live up to the hype of being the most impactful newcomer in 2024? If he does, the predictions of the Falcons winning the NFL South should come true.

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Atlanta, GA

Bulls fall to Atlanta Hawks, lose for 4th time in 5 games

Published

7 hours ago

January 16, 2025

Press Room

Bulls fall to Atlanta Hawks, lose for 4th time in 5 games

CBS Sports HQ

Live

CHICAGO (AP) — Keaton Wallace had a career-high 27 points and the short-handed Atlanta Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls 110-94 on Wednesday night.

Wallace nearly doubled his previous high of 14. He made four 3-pointers and had six assists.

Daeqwon Plowden scored 19 points in his NBA debut after being called up from the G League’s College Park Skyhawks.

Dyson Daniels scored 18 points, and Onyeka Okongwu added 14 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists to help the Hawks win for the third time in four games even though Trae Young sat out due to a bruised right rib. The three-time All-Star was hurt against Phoenix on Tuesday night when he scored a season-high 43 points in a 122-117 win.

Coby White scored 16 points for Chicago. Zach LaVine had 15, and Nikola Vucevic added 14 points and 16 rebounds.

Takeaways

Hawks: Young, averaging 23.1 points and a league-leading 11.9 assists, was part of a lengthy list of sidelined Hawks. It included Jalen Johnson (right shoulder inflammation), De’Andre Hunter (left foot soreness), Larry Nance Jr. (right hand) and rookie Zaccharie Risacher (left adductor irritation).

Bulls: The Bulls simply couldn’t find much of a rhythm and lost for the fourth time in five games.

Key moment

Wallace scored 18 in the first half as the Hawks built a 61-47 lead.

The 6-foot-3 guard had eight points in a 15-0 run early in the second quarter that gave Atlanta a 42-27 lead. The Bulls got within four late in the half before the Hawks scored 13 straight, capped by Okongwu’s alley-oop dunk to make it 59-42 with 1:30 left. Okongwu also put back Bogdan Bogdanovic’s missed 3 in the closing seconds to send Atlanta to the locker room up by 14.

The Bulls went on a 12-2 run in the third to pull within 72-67 with about five minutes left in the quarter. The Hawks led by eight going into the fourth and remained in control from there.

Key stat

Both teams struggled from 3-point range, with the Hawks making 13 of 43 and the Bulls going 6 for 27.

Up next

The Hawks visit Boston on Saturday night, and the Bulls host Charlotte on Friday night.

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Atlanta, GA

Biden shares Eisenhower's concern about military-industrial complex

Published

15 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Biden shares Eisenhower's concern about military-industrial complex

During President Biden’s farewell address, he quoted former President Eisenhower’s farewell address from 1961, and said he was equally concerned decades later about the dangers of the military-industrial complex and misplaced power.

Posted January 15, 2025 8:41pm EST

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Atlanta, GA

Frankie Mulinix brings Butoh dance to Atlanta

Published

23 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Frankie Mulinix brings Butoh dance to Atlanta

Atlanta’s dance scene is vibrant and eclectic, and we are honored to highlight some of the many local dancers who move us with their movements in our ongoing series “Speaking of Dance.”

This edition highlights Atlanta performer, Frankie Mulinix, the founder and artistic director of Burning Bones Physical Theatre. She specializes in the evocative Butoh, a 1950s-era Japanese dance-theater art form that blends German expressionism, mime, and European philosophy to explore taboo subjects through dance.

For Mulinix, discovering Butoh during her undergraduate studies was transformative. “My body said, this is home,” she shared.

As an artist-in-residence at Windmill Arts, Mulinix is dedicated to building Atlanta’s Butoh community from the ground up, educating audiences about its history and global significance. Her work aims to transform emotion into experience, creating visceral performances that resonate deeply with performers and audiences alike.

Burning Bones Physical Theatre has an exciting 2025 season planned, with more information at Frankie Mulinix’s website here.

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