ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Falcons are turning to rookie Michael Penix Jr. as their starting quarterback and benching veteran Kirk Cousins as they fight for their first playoff berth since 2017.
Coach Raheem Morris announced the decision in a statement Tuesday night.
“After review we have made the decision Michael Penix Jr. will be the Atlanta Falcons' starting quarterback moving forward,” Morris said. “This was a football decision and we are fully focused on preparing the team for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants.”
The Falcons (7-7) ended a four-game losing streak with Monday night's ugly 15-9 win at Las Vegas. Cousins passed for 112 yards with one touchdown — his first TD pass in five games — and one interception. The 36-year-old has thrown nine picks over the past five games and leads the NFL with 16 interceptions.
Atlanta signed Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract in the offseason with $100 million guaranteed before selecting Penix No. 8 overall in the NFL draft.
Cousins ended his touchdown drought with a 30-yard scoring pass to Drake London in the first quarter but had few other highlights against the woeful Raiders.
“It’s not where I want to be," he said of his performance. “There’s a lot of room for improvement and we’d like to finish a lot stronger here these last three weeks.”
The Falcons made the switch about three hours after Morris told reporters he wasn't ready to make a decision on this week's starter.
“We talked about it last night,” Morris said. “You know, there’s no secret. We didn’t play well enough at the quarterback position, and we’ve got to find ways to play better. So, all those things over the course of the week and we’ve got to do whatever is best to win versus the Giants.”
The quarterback move comes with the Falcons still contending for the NFC South title. Atlanta is one game behind division-leading Tampa Bay, but the Falcons hold the tiebreaker advantage.
Penix has appeared in only two games, completing 3 of 5 passes for 38 yards. He was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2023, when he passed for 4,903 yards with 36 touchdowns and 11 interceptions for Washington.
Cousins had a strong start to the season, leading the Falcons to a 6-3 start and first place in the division. He has completed 66.9% of his passes, exactly matching his standard for his 13-year career. He has passed for 3,508 yards but has an unhealthy ratio of 18 touchdown passes to 16 interceptions.
Morris acknowledged it appeared Cousins' confidence has been shaken by his recent struggles.
“I’m not trying to sugarcoat this thing for him,” Morris said. “He’s not trying to sugarcoat it for himself. ... When you go through the stress that we’re going through right now, you’re not going to have that same confidence and the same swagger that you had in the first, two months or three months, whatever it was, of the season.”
Morris has consistently said the plan was for Cousins to handle the job this season while Penix prepared to take over at some point in the future. Morris was reluctant to veer from than plan before Tuesday night, though he said earlier in the day he saw no downside if he chose to start Penix.
The first-year coach has praised the way Penix has handled the backup role.
“You could never say there’s a downside to turn it over to somebody that you put a lot of investment into, somebody that you brought in here, somebody you’ve done some things with, somebody that’s done nothing but the right thing since they’ve been here,” Morris said.
Morris added he was "just being really smart and cautious in how we go about our business” in sticking with Cousins through his recent struggles.
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Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) throws against the Las Vegas Raiders during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins recovers a bad snap during the second half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) greets Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Desmond Ridder (10) after an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump would not be the first president to invoke the Insurrection Act, as he has threatened, so that he can send U.S. military forces to Minnesota.
But he'd be the only commander in chief to use the 19th-century law to send troops to quell protests that started because of federal officers the president already has sent to the area — one of whom shot and killed a U.S. citizen.
The law, which allows presidents to use the military domestically, has been invoked on more than two dozen occasions — but rarely since the 20th Century's Civil Rights Movement.
Federal forces typically are called to quell widespread violence that has broken out on the local level — before Washington's involvement and when local authorities ask for help. When presidents acted without local requests, it was usually to enforce the rights of individuals who were being threatened or not protected by state and local governments. A third scenario is an outright insurrection — like the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Experts in constitutional and military law say none of that clearly applies in Minneapolis.
“This would be a flagrant abuse of the Insurrection Act in a way that we've never seen,” said Joseph Nunn, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program. “None of the criteria have been met.”
William Banks, a Syracuse University professor emeritus who has written extensively on the domestic use of the military, said the situation is “a historical outlier” because the violence Trump wants to end “is being created by the federal civilian officers” he sent there.
But he also cautioned Minnesota officials would have “a tough argument to win” in court, because the judiciary is hesitant to challenge “because the courts are typically going to defer to the president” on his military decisions.
Here is a look at the law, how it's been used and comparisons to Minneapolis.
George Washington signed the first version in 1792, authorizing him to mobilize state militias — National Guard forerunners — when “laws of the United States shall be opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed.”
He and John Adams used it to quash citizen uprisings against taxes, including liquor levies and property taxes that were deemed essential to the young republic's survival.
Congress expanded the law in 1807, restating presidential authority to counter “insurrection or obstruction” of laws. Nunn said the early statutes recognized a fundamental “Anglo-American tradition against military intervention in civilian affairs” except “as a tool of last resort.”
The president argues Minnesota officials and citizens are impeding U.S. law by protesting his agenda and the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Customs and Border Protection officers. Yet early statutes also defined circumstances for the law as unrest “too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course” of law enforcement.
There are between 2,000 and 3,000 federal authorities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, compared to Minneapolis, which has fewer than 600 police officers. Protesters' and bystanders' video, meanwhile, has shown violence initiated by federal officers, with the interactions growing more frequent since Renee Good was shot three times and killed.
“ICE has the legal authority to enforce federal immigration laws,” Nunn said. “But what they're doing is a sort of lawless, violent behavior” that goes beyond their legal function and “foments the situation” Trump wants to suppress.
“They can't intentionally create a crisis, then turn around to do a crackdown,” he said, adding that the Constitutional requirement for a president to “faithfully execute the laws” means Trump must wield his power, on immigration and the Insurrection Act, “in good faith.”
Courts have blocked some of Trump's efforts to deploy the National Guard, but he'd argue with the Insurrection Act that he does not need a state's permission to send troops.
That traces to President Abraham Lincoln, who held in 1861 that Southern states could not legitimately secede. So, he convinced Congress to give him express power to deploy U.S. troops, without asking, into Confederate states he contended were still in the Union. Quite literally, Lincoln used the act as a legal basis to fight the Civil War.
Nunn said situations beyond such a clear insurrection as the Confederacy still require a local request or another trigger that Congress added after the Civil War: protecting individual rights. Ulysses S. Grant used that provision to send troops to counter the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists who ignored the 14th and 15th amendments and civil rights statutes.
During post-war industrialization, violence erupted around strikes and expanding immigration — and governors sought help.
President Rutherford B. Hayes granted state requests during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 after striking workers, state forces and local police clashed, leading to dozens of deaths. Grover Cleveland granted a Washington state governor's request — at that time it was a U.S. territory — to help protect Chinese citizens who were being attacked by white rioters. President Woodrow Wilson sent troops to Colorado in 1914 amid a coal strike after workers were killed.
Federal troops helped diffuse each situation.
Banks stressed that the law then and now presumes that federal resources are needed only when state and local authorities are overwhelmed — and Minnesota leaders say their cities would be stable and safe if Trump's feds left.
As Grant had done, mid-20th century presidents used the act to counter white supremacists.
Franklin Roosevelt dispatched 6,000 troops to Detroit — more than double the U.S. forces in Minneapolis — after race riots that started with whites attacking Black residents. State officials asked for FDR's aid after riots escalated, in part, Nunn said, because white local law enforcement joined in violence against Black residents. Federal troops calmed the city after dozens of deaths, including 17 Black residents killed by local police.
Once the Civil Rights Movement began, presidents sent authorities to Southern states without requests or permission, because local authorities defied U.S. civil rights law and fomented violence themselves.
Dwight Eisenhower enforced integration at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas; John F. Kennedy sent troops to the University of Mississippi after riots over James Meredith's admission and then pre-emptively to ensure no violence upon George Wallace's “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” to protest the University of Alabama's integration.
“There could have been significant loss of life from the rioters” in Mississippi, Nunn said.
Lyndon Johnson protected the 1965 Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery after Wallace's troopers attacked marchers' on their first peaceful attempt.
Johnson also sent troops to multiple U.S. cities in 1967 and 1968 after clashes between residents and police escalated. The same thing happened in Los Angeles in 1992, the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked.
Riots erupted after a jury failed to convict four white police officers of excessive use of force despite video showing them beating a Rodney King, a Black man. California Gov. Pete Wilson asked President George H.W. Bush for support.
Bush authorized about 4,000 troops — but after he had publicly expressed displeasure over the trial verdict. He promised to “restore order” yet directed the Justice Department to open a civil rights investigation, and two of the L.A. officers were later convicted in federal court.
President Donald Trump answers questions after signing a bill that returns whole milk to school cafeterias across the country, in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
