Why is Michael Penix Jr. sitting the Atlanta Falcons preseason finale vs. Jacksonville?
The Atlanta Falcons drafted the former Washington QB in a move that surprised a lot of people. Now they are surprising a lot of people by not playing him.
After finishing 7-10 last season, the Atlanta Falcons decided to shake things up this offseason. They brought in a big money free agent quarterback, drafted another quarterback that might be ready to take the reigns in a few years but neither of those two quarterbacks are actually playing at the moment.
Big offseason moves in ATL
The Falcons took rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the 8th pick of this spring’s NFL Draft after a year in which he took the Washington Huskies to the National Championship. The move was met with some confusion considering Atlanta brought in big money free agent Kirk Cousins earlier in the offseason.
The 36 year-old quarterback signed with the Falcons for a whopping $180 million after putting up some fantastic seasons in Minnesota. The only problem other than Cousins’ age was that he suffered a season ending Achilles injury in Week 8 of last year. He is now apparently healthy and ready to go for Week 1 so where does that leave Penix?
Penix played the preseason opener against the Miami Dolphins and impressed coaches, and fans. The former Husky got the start in a surprising move by head coach Raheem Morris, and went on to play five series. He finished the game 9/16 for 106 yards, much better than his counterparts, Taylor Heinicke and Nathan Rourke.
Morris has “seen enough”
The was the last we have seen of Penix who sat this past weekend’s game against Baltimore. Coach Morris told reporters he had seen enough of his new quarterback with the work put in on the practice field and the one game against Miami. “You’ve seen the amount of reps that Michael’s been able to get without really taking away from our starter,” Morris to the Associated Press on Monday “He’s got a huge amount of reps versus our starting defense. And I feel really good about where he’s going and what he’s going to develop.”
The decision infuriated a lot of Falcons fans who are eager to see the rookie quarterback. That anger is only going to amplify after the announcement that Penix won’t play the preseason final against Jacksonville.
The fact of the matter is Penix isn’t expected to play this season if all goes well for the Atlanta. They have their starter, Kirk Cousins and if he stays healthy he will play. If he can’t stay healthy, it seems like Morris likes Penix enoughth to already consider him the back up. So why keep a rookie on the bench during preseason?
“I could play him a little bit more if I needed something else,” Morris said. “But I don’t feel that way. And I don’t think any of the people that I would talk to in that circle of trust would feel that way, or we’d be playing him a little bit more.”
Why not play him?
If Penix doesn’t play this season, this would be a great chance to get him some snaps until next season. The Green Bay Packers did that with Jordan Love only a few years ago. Love sat and watched entire seasons at a time while Aaron Rodgers got all the snaps, but Love would get almost all the snaps in preseason knowing that those snaps would be most of his game reps for the year.
The formula seemed to work for the Packers, look at them now. The other scenario, is Cousins gets hurt. If that were to occur, then Morris’ decision will really be called in to question, because Penix will have missed out on preseason snaps that could have prepared him a bit more for the regular season.
The move for Cousins may be understood around Atlanta, but the amount of money the Falcons shelled out may not be universally supported. With an aging quarterback under center and a rookie quarterback that fans seem to be rallying around, you can put yourself in a trick position as a coach. Perhaps Morris is sitting Penix to protect his rookie quarterback, but more so to protect his veteran quarterback.