Dan Orlovsky Urges Atlanta Falcons to Trade for Former 1st Round QB

The Atlanta Falcons head into the 2025 offseason with an entirely new regime. Kevin Stefanski takes over as the head coach, Ian Cunningham as the general manager and franchise legend Matt Ryan returns as the president of football operations.

As the trio looks to turn around the Falcons and take the franchise back to the playoffs for the first time since 2017, some roster questions loom large, the biggest of which lies at the quarterback position.

ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky floated an intriguing possibility for the Falcons at quarterback: former first-round pick Mac Jones.

“Call the 49ers, call Kyle Shanahan, and say, ‘Is Mac Jones available or is he absolutely not?’’ Orlovsky said on ESPN’s “Get Up” show on Thursday.

“Because if you look at this offense, and the talent that they have. Now Kevin Stefanski as a head coach, Tommy Rees as a play caller, Mac Jones is perfect for it. It’s the perfect place for Mac Jones to go play.”

Mac Jones started eight games for the 49ers in 2025, including one against the Atlanta Falcons. In that stretch, he went 5-3, completing 69.6% for 2,151 yards, 13 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 97.4 passer rating. Orlovsky argued that Jones was playing as well, if not better, than starter Brock Purdy during that stretch.

“If they [Atlanta] acquire Mac Jones, [they] get the Mac Jones that we’ve seen in San Francisco. This guy, that, you know, for a stretch this season was like whoa whoa whoa, do we have a quarterback controversy on our hands with the way that he’s playing in comparison to what that Brock Purdy had done so far this year?” Orlovsky said.

Jones was originally drafted 15th overall by the New England Patriots in the 2021 NFL Draft. He was a Pro Bowler as a rookie, throwing for nearly 4,000 yards and 22 touchdowns as he helped lead the Patriots to 10 wins and a playoff berth. However, he would never throw more than 14 touchdowns in New England again and was ultimately traded to the Jaguars for a sixth-round pick ahead of the 2024 NFL season.

He started seven games for the Jaguars in 2024, with middling results, winning just two of those games. He completed 65.3% of his passes for 1,672 yards, eight touchdowns, eight interceptions and an 80.5 passer rating.

Jones looked the best he has since his rookie season under Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco this past season, and of the quarterback trades floated around for Atlanta this offseason, he makes the most sense. For one, between Jones, Kyler Murray, and Tua Tagovailoa, he is by far the cheapest, set to earn a base salary of $1.4 million in 2026. And, he has less of an injury history than both Murray and Tagovailoa.

Michael Penix Jr. started nine games for the Falcons in 2025, before a partially torn ACL suffered in a Week 11 matchup with the Carolina Panthers sidelined him for the rest of the season. Atlanta’s staff has been non-committal to Penix as the starter, and some insiders have reported that the Falcons may be looking for a replacement at quarterback.

Whether that proves to be the case or not, one thing is clear: once veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins is released on the first day of the new league year in March, the Falcons will be left with just one quarterback on the roster. At minimum, Atlanta will need to bring in another arm this offseason, if not to compete for the starting job, then to provide necessary depth behind whoever ultimately takes the QB1 reps.

However, with the way Ian Cunningham has spoken about Atlanta’s draft picks, likening them to currency, it seems unlikely that the Falcons will surrender draft assets unless they really have to, and with a veteran quarterback like Joe Flacco on the market, one who is already familiar with Kevin Stefanski’s scheme, the Falcons may ultimately opt for the short-term, low-cost veteran solution.

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