Michael Penix Jr, Quarterback, Washington. Talk about a total draft night stunner. Analysts and fans were understandably beside themselves upon hearing the news. After all, the team had signed veteran QB Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal with $100 million fully guaranteed less than two months before the selection.
Speaking of Cousins, the team apparently decided not to keep him in the loop on their pick, with his agent Mike McCartney sharing their side of the story to NFL Network, “we had no idea this was coming. The truth is the whole league had no idea this was coming. We got no heads up. Kirk got a call from the Falcons when they were on the clock… [The Penix pick] never came up in any conversation.”
So, what exactly were the Falcons thinking when they made their draft night plans? The short answer is that they probably weren’t thinking at all, but that answer just wouldn’t be much fun to try explaining to my online audience of sports enthusiasts. Read on as I explain just what happened with the Falcons franchise on draft night.
Same old Falcons
The Falcons always break away from conventional thinking & walk their own path. Over the past four years, they have used four straight first round picks on offensive players despite glaring roster holes littered throughout their woeful defensive unit. They’ve failed at using their high draft picks to improve the defense in recent years.
Kyle Pitts and Bijan Robinson in particular both seemed like luxury picks for teams that had more pressing needs at the time, and this same viewpoint applies to Penix. Perhaps he turns out to be a great quarterback who was worthy of the No. 8 pick, but with Kirk Cousins contract fully guaranteed for at least the next two seasons, isn’t it possible that our limited draft resources could have been better utilized elsewhere?
Prioritizing the future, ignoring the present
The NFC South is up for grabs right now, with the Buccaneers winning the division with consecutive mediocre records of 8-9 in 2022 followed up by a 9-8 finish in 2023. Baker Mayfield, Bryce Young, and Derek Carr are the quarterbacks that the Falcons compete against in the division, and Kirk Cousins compares favorably to those guys.
Guys like Alabama DE Dallas Turner, UCLA DE Laiatu Latu, and Texas DT Byron Murphy would have helped the team win right now with Cousins at the helm, but drafting his replacement was somehow more important than seizing the moment. All three of those guys would have been immediate starters for this team given the sorry state of the defensive line, but instead the team selected a player in Michael Penix Jr. who, barring injury, won’t be seeing the field at all for the next two years.
Laughingstock of the NFL
It’s been seven years since Super Bowl LI and the infamous 28-3 debacle, and yet Falcons fans are constantly reminded of this gut-wrenching loss on a regular basis. The game of football is unforgiving, and fans of other teams around the league are quick to reference the overtime loss whenever an NFL team blows a lead in a game. Honestly, the team nor their fanbase have ever recovered from the haunting defeat.
Fast-forward to draft night, and the Falcons proved once again why they are truly the laughingstock of the NFL after the surprising selection of Michael Penix Jr. was met with head-scratching and a heavy dose of skepticism from around the league. Most people believe in the former Washington QB as a talented prospect; however the pick and the process by which the Falcons made the pick don’t make much sense.
The Falcons seem to enjoy being in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons. From “28-3” to the fake crowd noise debacle to the Penix pick, the franchise cannot stay out of their own way long enough to construct a championship-caliber culture. Time will tell whether or not Penix pans out in Atlanta, but history is not on his side.
The Sports Beacon 