NFL Network on Michael Penix Jr. 'Something to get Excited About'

When the Atlanta Falcons drafted then 24-year-old Michael Penix Jr., the plan was for him to deputize Kirk Cousins for two seasons before taking the reins in 2026. That plan was accelerated as Cousins struggled in the second half, and the Falcons missed the playoffs.

With the benefit of hindsight, Penix may not have had to sit at all. Quarterbacks typically enjoy a better first year, if their first year isn’t their rookie season, but COVID changed the timelines of quarterbacks in recent seasons.

With NIL money and extra seasons in college, players are older and more mature than the typical three-and-out 20 and 21-year olds of years past.

After all, fellow 24-year old quarterbacks Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders and Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos enjoyed productive seasons as rookies – their maturity playing a big part.

Penix Jr. is being called upon as a building block for Falcons moving forward. Atlanta heads into Penix's sophomore year with high hopes that he's finally going to provide them with a definitive answer under center. He’ll be the Falcons’ fifth-different starting quarterback in the last five seasons.

It’s not just the Falcons who are high on Penix. He showed enough in three games to grab attention around the NFL. Popular analysts such as Cameron Wolfe of the NFL Network believes Penix Jr.'s three-game audition contained compelling evidence which points toward forthcoming yields.

"To me, more interesting to the Falcons' future is, 'What's next for Michael Penix?'" Wolfe said recently. "I remember covering that Week 18 game, and I know it was a loss, but seeing Michael Penix elevate to a level that I don't think we saw, the Falcons saw, using his legs and a certain ability that we hadn't seen in college. I think that poise is something to get excited about."

Penix ran a sub-4.5 forty for the Falcons on a personal visit, but he only rushed for 100-total yards in two years at Washington. Penix is fast, even if he doesn’t show it often.

General manager Terry Fontenot took over the Falcons in 2021. They’ve had four-straight losing seasons under his tenure. He admitted in January he hadn’t done a good enough job of building the team.

Raheem Morris was hired to take over what was considered a playoff-ready squad. All it needed was a quarterback. Morris admitted at his introductory presser that if the Falcons had better quarterback play in 2023, he likely wouldn’t be the coach in 2024.

There's not a lot of patience left in Falcons Nation.

They’ve gone all-in on Penix Jr. and the early returns are good. Much of the offseason will be spent constructing a defense that will stop other teams more successfully than they did last season.

Do that and Penix, Morris, and Fontenot should be smiling widely after 2025.