In a matter of six weeks, the Atlanta Falcons went from having no clear plan at quarterback to having two QBs.
Atlanta surprised many by selecting Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall pick in the draft on Thursday.
“You can see, six quarterbacks went in the first round. There’s a reason,” Falcons GM Terry Fontenot said at the end of the first round. “If you see a guy at that position that you believe in, you take him.”
Head coach Raheem Morris said the presence of a model professional and mentor was actually a reason to add Penix.
The selection gives the Falcons another option to go with Kirk Cousins, whom they signed to a four-year, $180 million deal on March 13 — a contract that includes $100 million guaranteed.
Cousins, 35, is looking to come back from a right Achilles tendon tear that ended his 2023 season in October. He’ll be 36 before the 2024 regular season begins.
“All (Penix) needs to do is come in and be the best version of himself,” Morris said.
Penix, who turns 24 in May, is coming off a spectacular senior season in which he led the Huskies to the national championship game. He threw for a national-high 4,903 yards and had 36 touchdown passes while getting intercepted 11 times.
He wound up as the Heisman Trophy runner-up behind LSU’s Jayden Daniels, and Penix captured the Maxwell Award, which goes to the county’s top college football player. Each of the past two seasons, Penix broke Washington’s single-season passing record.
Penix wound up as the fourth quarterback selected, possibly due in part to his injury history. During his six-year collegiate career (the first four seasons at Indiana), he was sidelined twice due to anterior cruciate ligament injuries and twice due to shoulder injuries.
Using two starting quarterbacks last year — Desmond Ridder produced a 6-7 record and Taylor Heinicke went 1-3 — Atlanta wound up ranked 27th in the NFL in passer rating at 80.5. The Falcons threw 17 touchdown passes and were intercepted 17 times.
Cousins is a four-time Pro Bowl selection who had missed just one start since 2015 before last year.
Cousins’ agent, Mike McCartney, told ESPN and NFL Network that he and his client learned about the Falcons’ plan to select Penix only when the team was on the clock.
“We had no idea this was coming,” McCartney told NFL Network. “We got no heads-up. … It never came up in any conversation.”
Cousins expressed “frustration and confusion” that the Falcons didn’t try to upgrade the 2024 roster with their selection, McCartney told ESPN.
