Michael Penix Jr. stars at NFL combine. Seahawks’ play caller knows him best. We’ll see...
Other top quarterbacks in this year’s draft are not throwing at the NFL combine.
They are too cool for that school, apparently.
Michael Penix Jr.? The 23-year old has taken one of the longest football roads possible to get here. He doesn’t do shortcuts.
Penix bulled through four major injuries, including two torn ACLs in his knees, in four seasons at Indiana to become a college superstar at Washington.
So it’s no surprise Penix’s embrace of the scouting-medical evaluation-interview-workout grind over long days and nights at the combine has made UW’s rifle-armed quarterback a standout at the NFL’s scouting extravaganza this week.
Penix, who propelled the UW’s Huskies to a 21-game winning streak, the Pac-12 championship, a Sugar Bowl win over Texas and the national championship game in January, has wowed NFL teams with his poise and leadership in one-on-one interviews all week.
“Penix has been a star this week, per multiple teams,” Peter Schrager of the league’s television network and FoxSports.com posted online at the combine Friday.
Back in the state an hour’s drive from where his first four college seasons all got derailed by major injuries, Penix was featured behind a podium inside the Indiana Convention Center Friday morning. He smiled and charmed as he answered questions from reporters.
Saturday, he was set to do what Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye are not: Throw at the combine.
“Just to show I’m willing to compete at the highest level,” Penix said in Indianapolis Friday. “I’m always willing to compete. This is a game I’ve loved since I was a kid. And any time I get an opportunity to compete, I’m going to take that opportunity.
“No offense to the guys that aren’t doing it. Everyone has their own reasons. But for me, I don’t pass up an opportunity to compete.”
The Seahawks and Michael Penix
Penix, the runner up to LSU’s Daniels for the Heisman Trophy last season, threw for 4,600 and 4,900 yards with 67 total touchdowns his two years at UW.
How did his interview at the combine go with the local Seahawks, who train across Lake Washington from where Penix starred on Montlake?
“I actually didn’t talk to the Seahawks,” Penix said Friday. “I don’t know why that is.
“Maybe they know me. I hope so.”
Oh, yes, they know Penix.
Their play caller knows Penix better than any coach in the NFL.
Ryan Grubb was Penix’s schemer, play caller and offensive coordinator at UW. The Seahawks hired Grubb last month.
That was after head coach Kalen DeBoer abruptly left Washington days after the Huskies’ loss to Michigan in the national title game Jan. 8, to take the job at Alabama. Grubb wanted the UW job but didn’t get it. He was recruiting at Alabama as DeBoer’s presumptive offensive coordinator. That was, until new Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider hired Grubb to be Seattle’s new offensive coordinator Feb. 15.
The Seahawks also hired Scott Huff as their new offensive line coach. Huff was the offensive line coach with Penix at Washington these last two seasons.
“I’m super excited for (Coach Grubb). And the things that he and Coach Huff were able to do with us at Washington is special,” Penix said Friday. “And to see them get success at the next level, I’m super excited to see it.”
The Seahawks have their quarterback of the now. Despite a cryptic comment Tuesday in Indianapolis that Smith is his team’s starter “until he’s not,” Schneider has since told Smith he’s not going anywhere. For 2024, that is.
The Seahawks do not have a quarterback of the future.
Smith has been selected to the first two Pro Bowls of his winding career his last two seasons as Russell Wilson’s replacement in Seattle. Smith will turn 34 during next season. His three-year, $75 million contract he signed before the 2023 season ends after 2025.
Smith and Penix trained together last offseason in Seattle. A mutual acquaintance — Smith thinks it might have been Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf, he’s not sure — had passed Smith’s mobile phone number to Penix. Penix basically cold-called the NFL veteran.
“I got a chance to throw with Mike in the offseason and had a chance to talk to him,” Smith said late last Seahawks season.
“He’s a really special player and a special guy. To be able to kind of share Seattle with him is awesome.”
Both quarterbacks are the same height, 6 feet 3. They are nearly the same size; Smith is 224 pounds and UW lists Penix at 213.
Both have cannonading arms and unique accuracy on deep passes.
Could they both be on the same team this year?
“He’s a great guy. The kind of guy that pushed me, hard,” Penix said of Smith Friday. “And I could tell everybody on that team gravitates around him and trusts him as their leader.
“That would be cool.”
Seahawks and drafting quarterbacks
The consensus is this year’s quarterbacks are the strongest of any recent draft classes. As many as four might go in the first 16 picks on April 25.
“This year’s draft class is a cool group. A lot of variances in there,” Schneider said.
Tuesday, Schneider again brought up the fact he’s only drafted two quarterbacks in his 14 years as Seattle’s GM. Wilson was a third-round pick in 2011. That worked out OK for Seattle. Alex McGough was a now-forgotten seventh-rounder in 2018.
Schneider said “we’re not proud of” that.
Grubb and Seattle’s new coaches stayed back at team headquarters this week instead of attending the combine. That was to install the team’s new playbooks.
Penix is already ahead of Smith in knowing the Seahawks playbook Grubb is installing.
Asked if this was ever the year to start anew at quarterback by drafting a top one, with a new head coach, with Grubb and a new offense and regime, Schneider said: “Honestly, it doesn’t matter. No.”
“I understand the question,” Schneider said. “But, no. It’s every year. I mean, just literally, if you guys sat in there with us it’s, ‘OK, this guy’s comin’ (down to us on the draft board). That guy’s comin’.’ And it doesn’t happen.”
It could happen with Penix in April.
Penix’s place in the draft
Grubb has called getting the Seahawks’ OC job a “unicorn event.”
Could Penix and Grubb reuniting on the Seahawks be another one?
Many think the first three picks of the draft will be a combination of Williams, the 2022 Heisman winner from USC, Daniels and Maye, from North Carolina. Penix and Oregon’s Bo Nix are viewed by most to be in the next tier of initial QBs drafted.
The Seahawks seem likely to have Penix available to them when they are scheduled to pick 16th in the first round this year.
Seattle doesn’t have a second-round pick. Schneider traded it to the New York Giants to acquire top veteran defensive tackle Leonard Williams last October.
Schneider has traded his original first-round pick in 10 of his last 12 Seahawks drafts. If he makes it 11 of 13 between now and when it’s Seattle turn at 16th on April 25, it will likely to be to move down and recoup a second-round pick.
Penix could still be available to the Seahawks there.
As wondrous as his two seasons at Washington were leading the country in passing, as impressive as he was at the Senior Bowl and this week at the combine, Penix’s medical history is getting scrutiny. He’s had the two torn ACLs in his knee. He had four season-ending injuries in four seasons at Indiana before he transferred to UW.
He got banged around while playing in pain last season for the Huskies. He turns 24 two weeks after the draft.
Friday, Ian Rapoport reported on NFL Network teams’ physical exams gave Penix “positive news” this week in Indinanapolis this week.
Penix was asked Friday if many teams voiced concerns to him at the combine about his history with injuries.
“No,” he said, “not really.
“That’s a big reason why I came back (to UW) for this last season, to have another fully healthy season and show that I’m ready to compete and can do it at the next level.
“At this point, I can’t control if there are still questions about the injury history.
“To be honest, I feel like I can fit in with offense,” Penix said. “I feel like what I bring to the table, I’ll be able to elevate everybody around me.
“And I feel like I’ll definitely be able to find ways to win — no matter where I go.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2024 at 1:12 PM.
