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The Atlanta Falcons made the first shock of the 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday, selecting Washington Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr eighth overall.
The decision was seen as shocking, considering that they had just given veteran Kirk Cousins a monstrous four-year, $180-million contract in free agency. In its aftermath, a video of general manager Terry Fontenot seemingly trying to explain everything to owner Arthur Blank hit X.com:
It is unknown where and how Penix will slot into a room that already has Cousins and Taylor Heinicke, the latter a holdover from the Arthur Smith era.
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Drafting Michael Penix might have been wrong move for Falcons
With the Michael Penix Jr. move, Terry Fontenot has an idea for how he believes the team will operate in the future: the youngster learns under Kirk Cousins for a year or two, then fully takes over. This formula worked wonders for Patrick Mahomes, who initially studied under Alex Smith; and the GM would love to emulate it.
But at the same time, there were other needs that the Falcons could have addressed. First would be center. With Matt Hennessy leaving for the Philadelphia Eagles to compete with Cam Jurgens for the right to succeed Jason Kelce, they needed some competition for Drew Dalman.
The other good move would have been for a top defensive end/linebacker. Grady Jarrett has been stellar in his nine-year career so far; however, he is coming off an ACL injury, leading to speculation as to how it will affect his performance, especially with him entering the second of three years in his current contract.
Other than that, this peck could have been traded to the Las Vegas Raiders, who badly need a quarterback thanks to a rather weak rotation of Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell, and Anthony Brown.
