The NFL cited discussions about “logistical” issues, such as travel arrangements, in imposing its penalties on the Falcons. The league also fined the team’s general manager, Terry Fontenot, $50,000. It said in a written statement that it informed the Falcons of “the discipline being imposed for violations of the Anti-Tampering Policy related to improper contact” with Cousins, wide receiver Darnell Mooney and tight end Charlie Woerner “during the two-day negotiating period prior to the start of the 2024 League Year.”
The Falcons will lose their fifth-round pick in next year’s draft.
Under NFL rules, teams are permitted to contact and negotiate prospective deals with agents of players from other teams who are eligible for unrestricted free agency during that two-day period. Teams are prohibited from having direct contact with those players during that period unless the players represent themselves. Cousins and Barkley are represented by agents and thus don’t qualify for that exception.
Any deals that teams lined up with free agents from other teams could not be official until the formal opening of the free agent market at 4 p.m. Eastern on March 13, which was the start of the new league year. Those rules do not apply to teams re-signing their own free agents or to players who were available after being released by their teams.
Media outlets reported Cousins’s four-year, $180 million deal with the Falcons and Barkley’s three-year, $37.75 million deal with the Eagles on March 11, and the teams announced the deals on March 13. Cousins’s agreement with the Falcons was announced by his agent, Mike McCartney, on social media March 11, without disclosing the financial terms. The Falcons held an introductory news conference for Cousins in Flowery Branch, Ga., on March 13. Cousins left the Minnesota Vikings after six seasons.
“While the policy permits clubs to engage with and negotiate all aspects of an NFL player contract with the certified agent of any prospective unrestricted free agent during the two-day negotiating period, any direct contact between the player and an employee or representative of the club is prohibited,” the NFL said in its statement regarding the penalties imposed on the Falcons. “This includes discussion of travel arrangements or other logistical matters, which the club acknowledges took place with regard to these three players.”
Cousins spoke during his introductory news conference about Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts recruiting him to the team for weeks (which would not necessarily violate tampering rules) and about being in contact with a member of the Falcons’ training staff. Cousins had his 2023 season ended in October when he suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon in his right leg during a Vikings’ victory over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
Cousins is months from playing his first game with the Falcons, but his tenure with his new team already has been tumultuous. Amid the league’s tampering investigation, the Falcons left many observers puzzled when they used the No. 8 overall selection in April’s NFL draft on a quarterback, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.
The Falcons also signed Mooney and Woerner in March.
“We are pleased this review is complete,” the Falcons said Thursday in a written statement issued through a spokesman. “We cooperated fully with the league and its review, and appreciate the NFL’s thoroughness. As we do with every process, we will review how we operate and look for ways to improve.”
The Eagles were not punished after the NFL did not find evidence that they violated the tampering rules during the process by which they signed Barkley in free agency in March.
The Eagles declined to comment Thursday. They reportedly had denied having impermissible contact with Barkley after Barkley’s former college coach at Penn State, James Franklin, was quoted speaking about a “sales pitch” to Barkley by Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman. Barkley said at his introductory news conference on March 14 in Philadelphia that Franklin had “misinterpreted” the situation and the Eagles had communicated with him only “through my agent.”
The NFL said in a statement Thursday that after “a thorough review,” it “did not discover sufficient evidence to support a finding that the Anti-Tampering Policy was violated” in the Eagles case.
The league said that it “reviewed phone logs, text messages and other documents related to Philadelphia’s free agency strategy and decision to sign Barkley” and interviewed Roseman, Coach Nick Sirianni, Barkley and Franklin. The NFL said that it could reopen the investigation “should new evidence be uncovered.”
Barkley left the New York Giants after six seasons.
The NFL fined the Kansas City Chiefs $250,000 and stripped the team of third- and sixth-round draft picks in 2016 for, according to the league, violating tampering rules with wide receiver Jeremy Maclin during the previous year’s free agent negotiating window. The league also fined Chiefs Coach Andy Reid $75,000 and John Dorsey, then the team’s general manager, $25,000.
The league suspended Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, fined him $1.5 million and stripped the team of first- and third-round draft choices in 2022 after finding that Ross and the Dolphins committed tampering violations involving quarterback Tom Brady and coach Sean Payton. But the Dolphins case did not relate directly to the free agent negotiating period.