Michael Penix Jr. Addresses Pistol Formation Debate in Atlanta

As Michael Penix Jr. recovers from an ACL injury, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback remains at the center of conversation in the early parts of the NFL offseason. The franchise is entering a new era, with a new front office and coaching staff.

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Iain MacMillan, senior editor of Sports Illustrated, was joined by the third-year quarterback in an interview. There, they discussed one hot-button issue for fans: the pistol formation.

I asked Michael Penix Jr. about why he played in shotgun/pistol as much as he did last season and if we'll see him play more under center in the future. pic.twitter.com/qwDy14qXgj
— Iain MacMillan (@IainMacBets) February 2, 2026

“Man, I’m comfortable doing either or,” Penix said with a grin about the pistol versus going under center. “I just do what I’m told. I do whatever is called, and I’ve gotta execute whatever is called to the best of my ability. The whole shotgun [versus] under center thing is not my call. I go out and run the plays that I’m told to run. There’s no restriction or anything like that. I’m comfortable and confident to do either or, and I know we will be mixing it up this year, and I’m excited for it.”

Under former offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, the Falcons ran a lot of plays out of the pistol.

Through Week 11, Penix had aligned in the pistol on 48.8% of plays compared to just 5.1% coming from under center, according to NextGenStats. In terms of his dropbacks from Weeks 1 through 10, he aligned in the pistol on 26.9% of passing plays – for reference, the average pistol formations among qualified quarterbacks in 2025 was significantly lower (3.7% of dropbacks).

That number decreased dramatically when Kirk Cousins took over, dropping to just 21.1% per NextGenStats.

According to Robinson, the decision to utilize the pistol formation had more to do with the comfort of the quarterback under center. In 2024, Cousins utilized the formation more frequently while the veteran was coming off the Achilles injury.

Ultimately, while the formation drew the ire of fans, the former offensive coordinator continued to swear by his decision to deploy it.

“Mike has a unique ability to be able to spin both ways out of the pistol, which can obviously get backers going laterally both ways,” he explained back on November 26th. “You're getting the same thing accomplished. I know it's, obviously, a popular narrative to say that. But Mike's play pass this year is basically all out of the pistol. Again, I think he's averaging like nine yards per attempt, which is one of the tops in the league. So, we get the same things accomplished.

“It can look different for sure. But in our minds, we take a look at the film. We time it up in terms of the ‘backers' response. We do all those things to check the box on our end to make sure that it's all clean. And we have found in our system and the way that we run things, that there's really no difference, and sometimes the pistol actions can give you a little bit more availability to do different footwork by the backs and by the quarterback.”

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The Falcons are entering a new generation in 2026, with the introduction of Kevin Stefanski and a new regime that is not married to the young quarterback. The new staff runs a heavy play-action offense that features a lot of under-center looks.

Penix says he is comfortable with this, but we will find out on the field soon enough.