QB Michael Penix Jr. Impressing Even Falcons Organization

No one believes in quarterback Michael Penix Jr. more than the Atlanta Falcons. They did somewhat shocking draft him at No. 8 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.

But even the Falcons appear impressed with his development.

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer wrote Monday that Atlanta's offseason focus has solely been on developing and building around Penix. That's all the while trade rumors have swirled around veteran signal-caller Kirk Cousins.

Penix has taken well to his role as presumed starter.

"Quietly, the pieces of an offense to best fit Penix are being put together—in a way they couldn’t have been last year with Atlanta locked into having Cousins under center," Breer wrote. "The spring started with Penix, Raheem Morris and OC Zac Robinson putting in the core fundamental elements of the offense.

"Penix has proven to be even faster on the uptick than expected when he was drafted, needing to be taught things just once, and that helped in getting his footwork synced up, his base widened and his eyes where they needed to be."

The excitement around Penix in Atlanta is rather high this offseason. The hope is he can be close to what Cousins was for Atlanta in October last year, and that the defense improves behind a plethora of young talent added to that side of the ball in the NFL Draft.

Nationally, there are more lukewarm takes around Penix -- a more "wait-and-see" approach. That's more than fair given that he's started just three NFL games, two of which were at home against the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers.

But reports like Breer's is why Falcons fans can't help but be excited.

"The coaches wanted to work on creating ways to best take advantage of his high-end arm talent," Breer added. "Having seen his deep-ball accuracy as very, very rare coming out, the Falcons added slower developing, play-action concepts to take advantage of his ability to create explosive plays down the field.

"Knowing his arm strength for what it is, they’ve also dug in on expanding the perimeter passing game, incorporating more out-breaking routes outside the numbers and to the wide side of the field."

It's obviously still early. A lot of pundits say one can't gauge anything based off offseason workouts. But Breer concluded writing, "this all looks really good" with Penix.

In his three starts last season, Penix completed just 58% of his passes but for 7.4 yards per pass. He also had three touchdowns with three interceptions.

The quarterback saved his best performance for last in Week 18 versus Carolina when he had 312 passing yards with a pair of touchdowns.