‘A stunner’: Falcons ask ex-UW star Michael Penix Jr. to save season over benched Cousins
Now — after months in mothballs, smack into the middle of a playoff race — is Michael Penix Jr.’s NFL time.
The Atlanta Falcons made that so Tuesday night. Coach Raheem Morris announced through a team statement he was starting Penix, the Washington Huskies’ star quarterback in the 2022 and ‘23 college seasons, and benching Kirk Cousins. The Falcons gave the 36-year-old Cousins a $180 million contract with $90 million guaranteed before this season.
That was just before Atlanta then selected Penix eighth overall in the NFL draft this spring. Penix led the nation in passing yards and UW to the national championship game 11 months ago. He finished second in voting for the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s top college player for the 2023 season with the Huskies.
“After review we have made the decision Michael Penix will be the Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback moving forward,” Morris said in a statement released by the team. “This was a football decision and we are fully focused on preparing the team for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants.”
The decision surprised those who follow the Falcons closest.
“It was a stunner,” D. Orlando Ledbetter, the long-time, award-winning Falcons beat writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution told The News Tribune on KJR-FM radio Wednesday morning.
The Falcons beat the Las Vegas Raiders 15-9 Monday night. That ended Atlanta’s four-game losing streak that dropped them from 6-3 to out of the NFC South lead. The Falcons let Cousins throw just 17 passes in the game. He completed 11 of them, for 112 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
He has nine interceptions and just one touchdown pass in his past five games.
“Cousins just starting playing so bad,” Ledbetter told the TNT from Falcons headquarters in Flowery Branch, Georgia. “They basically went to the wishbone to beat the Raiders.”
Now, Ledbetter says, the Falcons are basically saying of Penix: “We’ll give him a scrimmage against the Giants...” then, go rally Atlanta to the playoffs. The Falcons (7-7) are a game behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for first place in the NFC South with three games left in the regular season.
Penix played a few snaps Oct. 20 at the end of the Falcons’ blowout loss to the Seahawks in Atlanta. Otherwise, he’s been running the scout team in Atlanta’s practices.
Ledbetter told the TNT Wednesday he talked in the Falcons locker room to Penix two weeks ago. He asked the rookie quarterback how ready he was to be Atlanta’s QB in a game after four months not getting first-team time.
“I stay ready. I’m good to go,” Penix told Ledbetter. “When I’m out on the field I’m taking mental reps. That’s the best thing I can do to get ready.”
The Falcons made the Penix the fourth quarterback taken in the top eight in this year’s draft. Penix joined Jake Locker in 2011 as the highest-drafted quarterbacks in UW history.
This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 11:29 AM.
