FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- There's a whiteboard in the Atlanta Falcons quarterback room that features a long list, but it's not about football.
Instead, starting QB Kirk Cousins and quarterbacks coach T.J. Yates have compiled a list of conspiracy theories. The duo, along with quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Nathan Peterman, discuss the theories during down time as a way to decompress. The list gets added to frequently.
"That thing is stacked up, and it's a pretty heavy list," Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said with a laugh.
The quarterbacks, Yates and assistant quarterbacks coach DJ Williams don't necessarily subscribe to the theories. At least not all of them. Instead, it's a way to connect with each other and entertain themselves during a grueling football season.
"Some of [the theories] have no legs, but they're funny because people bring them up and try to make them work," Cousins said. "But every now and then we take a break after watching film and we'll go grab some trail mix and we'll just kind of take two minutes talking about the latest conspiracy theory and what we think and/or why we don't think it's real.
"And then we're back to ball."
Some of the subjects are popular, such as the John F. Kennedy assassination and the moon landing. But then there are deeper cuts, like the origins of the Denver airport and what's happening under Georgia's Lake Lanier.
One conspiracy Penix thought was funny was that some McDonald's employees don't like making McFlurry desserts or cleaning up the machine at night, so they just say it's not working.
"I'm not going to say I don't believe in conspiracy theories, but I just don't fall too deep into that rabbit hole," Penix said.
The conspiracy kick started during training camp. Quarterback Taylor Heinicke and Cousins were working out. Heinicke asked Cousins if he was into conspiracy theories. The two had a conversation that eventually morphed into Falcons veterans having rookies give PowerPoint presentations about certain conspiracies as a form of NFL initiation.
Linebacker JD Bertrand impressed with his presentations. Heinicke, who has since been traded to the Los Angeles Chargers, said his favorite was from undrafted free agent tight end Austin Stogner, who did his presentations on the pyramids and the moon landing.
"He never said why we didn't [believe it] or why we did, it was, 'Hey, here are the facts, [here's] what other people said, leave it up to you to think about it,'" Heinicke said. " ... It was a good thing for the team, talking [about them]. So yeah, it was fun."
Yates said he and the quarterbacks don't really believe in the far-out ideas. It's more about funny conversations regarding the "absurdity of certain ones." The list, he said, has expanded to about 25 different theories and counting.
"It's a good, healthy conversation," Yates said. "Every once in a while, somebody will come in and write one on the board and we'll talk about it and be like, 'Oh, that's cool' or, 'That sounds crazy.' Like the hidden city under Altoona Lake or Lake Lanier, all that stuff. There's a bunch of different ones."
Peterman, who was signed to the Falcons practice squad Sept. 3, said he was a bit confused when he walked into the quarterback room a few weeks ago and saw the list, but added that it has become a "full offensive staff contribution."
"I don't know what half the things are," Peterman said.
Atlanta head coach Raheem Morris is taking a hands-off approach to the list. He's aware of it, but that's about where it ends.
"Some places, you've got to give them their own space," Morris said with a laugh. "The quarterback room is one of them."
More than anything, Cousins said, the conspiracy theories are a way to take a break from football talk for a short period of time. He said Yates does a good job keeping the players' minds on the game 85% of the time, with room for a breather.
"I had a coach once who, at the end of the season, to his credit, he said, 'Hey, you have any feedback for me? Any thoughts on how I could coach better?'" Cousins said. "And I said, 'Well, Coach, after about seven months, we probably didn't talk about football for like 30 seconds.' So, I said, 'I think maybe mix it up a little bit could be a good balance.'
"T.J. does a good job of that naturally."
Cousins said he is not a conspiracy theorist, but added that you can find out a lot about teammates by asking them what they believe in. And that ever-growing whiteboard in the quarterback room? It's starting to set in with the veteran signal-caller.
"I try to kind of like ask guys what they think, and then you can kind of get a feel for who the guys are in our locker room a little more, if they kind of leaned that way," Cousins said with a laugh. "So, I actually don't lean that way, but the more we talk about it, the more they're like pulling me over to being paranoid.
"So, I don't really know that I like this."