REBOOT: What’s Next for Atlanta Falcons at Quarterback? Will a 2027 Rookie SURPASS Michael Penix?

REBOOT: What’s Next for Atlanta Falcons at Quarterback? Will a 2027 Rookie SURPASS Michael Penix?

The Falcons future at quarterback probably won’t involve Michael Penn, but may involve a new face of the franchise in 2027. [Music] You are Locked on Falcons, your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome back everyone to another illustrious episode of the Locked On Falcons podcast, your daily Atlanta Falcons podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And of course, the Locked On Podcast Network is now the number one sports podcast network on the planet, which means it’s number one in the galaxy. And today’s Locked on Falcons is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use all across the app. Now, the Locked on Podcast Network is now number one in the galaxy because of you, the Everydayers of this podcast. And the Everydayers, that means you make this podcast your first listen each and every day. And all you got to do to become an everyday whether it’s locked on falcons, locked on hawks or any of the great shows across the locked on podcast network, locked on braves, gotta give my guy Jake some love. You know, all you got to do to become an everyday of any show on the locked on podcast network and subscribe or follow for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. So I am your humble host Aaron Freeman. Been covering the Falcons for almost two decades. Today’s locked on Falcons, we are not going to be talking about this Falcons week 13 loss to the Jets. Uh, as I discussed a couple of weeks ago, uh, with the Falcons, season hopes pretty much over, um, at least outside the building in Flowery Branch, and no one cares. Uh, at this point in time, we’re going to start pivoting a lot of these episodes during the week. Instead of talking about the most recent game like we normally do on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, you know, we’ll talk about the most recent games on Mondays, uh, Wednesdays, and then the future game on Thursday. But like the Tuesday and and Friday episodes are going to start pivoting more towards the future uh because of the season. And today, you know, the big topic about this direction of this football team is really about the quarterback position. And sort of I’ll give you my sort of outlook on what direction the Falcons should head from a quarterback standpoint, whether that direction includes, you know, a redemption for Michael Penn, you know, whether that includes Kirk Cousins kind of being a bridge quarterback. who are the bridge quarterbacks that the Falcons can bring in between now and when Michael Penn uh comes back healthy hopefully in 2026 and whether or not the Falcons should be counting that much on Michael Penn coming back healthy in 2026 as part of their future quarterback conversations. But you know that quarterback position has been the situation and position that the Falcons have been trying to figure out for the last four years, right? Basically, it became very obvious in 2021, um, you know, that Matt Ryan was not going to have the the five good years left. That that off season was a lot of hype. Was like, “Oh, he’s got plenty of time left.” And it was like, “No, they’re going to have to start pivoting uh towards Matt Ryan.” I remember having a conversation on this podcast like as early as week three in that 2021 season. And the Falcons are still in the midst of having this revolving door. And that door, I think, is going to continue to revolve until the Falcons can stabilize that position uh moving forward. And you know, the hope was that Michael Penn would be the stability. The hope was Kirk Cousins would be the stability initially for at least two years and then Michael Penn could be the stability for the in the ensuing eight to 15 years. Uh and it doesn’t feel like those hopes are going to come true based off of what we have seen the last two years. And so, you know, there’s going to be a new hope in Atlanta at some point uh in the future in my humble opinion. And I think that hope is going to come in the form of a 2027 first round draft pick uh for the Falcons. That’s going to be their best chance to land that franchise quarterback. And basically, you’re going to hope that that quarterback has his kind of breakthrough year in 2028. Goes through his rookie growing pains in 2027. Year two of that player’s career is going to be 2028 hopefully for a a new coaching staff. And that’s going to pay off in a major three-year plan for that coaching staff to get that payoff in 2028 where you’re going to get this team back to a position that we’ve been wanting to see this team, the Atlanta Falcons, winning games, winning more games than they lose, right? Having a winning record, making the playoffs, all that stuff in 2028 as opposed to in the intervening years. And now I present this not necessarily as this foolproof plan that is guaranteed to to be successful. It’s not, right? You know, the thing I will continue I will the hill I will die on is that hitting on a quarterback is more luck than skill uh in this league. Uh but I feel like this is your best chance and I’m going to say some numbers here that aren’t necessarily the numbers I believe. But just to kind of illustrate the point, I don’t sit here and think that this strategy that the Falcons are going to employ that I’m about to outline for you is some foolproof plan. Right? The odds of this working out in the Falcons favor, let’s say it’s like 30%. which is basically means it’s not likely to work out for in in the Falcons case. But I would argue that any alternative path that the Falcons could choose uh is probably only has like a 15% chance of working out in the intervening years um for this team finding their franchise quarterback. Uh, and ultimately to me what makes me optimistic that this plan will work out better than some of the more recent plans that the Falcons have is you actually have a plan as opposed to just kind of the figure it out strategy that I feel like has embodied the Falcons particularly in the Terry Fontau era over the last 5 years and in the preceding years. Um, and you know that plan to me starts with cleaning house. We’re talking about the entire front office. We’re talking about all the coaching staff. we’re talking about much of the roster as well. I think you going to have to clean house with this roster uh as well as a way to sort of build this thing back up. And so that will potentially lead to the Falcons having, for lack of a better term, kind of a tank year in 2026. You know, I don’t like using the the the term tank because it comes with a certain connotation, but like you’re just basically, let’s call it, you’re going to take your medicine type season in 202026. Um, then you draft that quarterback in 2027 when you get that first round pick back. Um, and you go through whatever growing year one growing pains that are typical with a first year quarterback and then hopefully in year two that quarterback gets through all those growing pains and you can get a year three sort of jump for this coaching staff that you’re going to hire this off upcoming offseason as well as a year two jump for that quarterback. Um, and to me, like the fact, the reason why I’m optimistic that this plan will work out better than the more recent plans is because I feel like the Falcons have kind of had their sort of all-in year three sort of years that I’m projecting to be more of the 2028 season for this upcoming coaching staff. They’ve had that when they’ve been that has coincided with them having their first year as for a starting quarterback. Right. With Arthur Smith, that was 2023. That was the year three of Arthur Smith. That was Desmond Ritter. He was a first year starting quarterback and he went through the growing pains, right? And this year it’s year two of Rahee Morris and they have a first year starter Michael Penn and he’s going through the growing pains and having sort of the typical year one growing pains of a starting quarterback going coinciding with a year where you need to sort of prove have the proof be in the pudding so to speak for you as a coaching staff just doesn’t match. And that to me is o due to coaches either overrating their ability to mitigate those first year struggles for those quarterbacks and Desmond Ritter and now in Michael Penn or underrating the the potential of those quarterbacks having those first year struggles rather than having that sort of be culminating in a third year for your upcoming coaching staff. You just get all that issues out of the way in year two. Right? That’s kind of where to me like the Arthur Smith regime, not to sit here and play revision is history and say, “Oh, like if you had kept Arthur Smith for one more year, it would have all paid off, but essentially having this three-year plan and you basically being the second year, what should be the second year of a three-year plan doesn’t coincide. And to me, basically the way that you do it right this time, if you’re the Atlanta Falcons, is to basically say, you know, our 2022 season is going to be 2026. our 2023 season is going to be 2027 and then it’s going to work in 2028. And the similar situation with Raheem Morris where you know Raheem Morris came in essentially coming in like oh we don’t even you know we’re going to redo the year three of Arcer Smith and do it better and they haven’t been able to do it better. But you know I I feel like you know this conversation leads to people thinking you know we’re giving up on Michael Penn far too soon. Um, and it’s not to say that we’re giving up on Michael Penn, but it’s just like the path to Pennix’s redemption is just a very narrow path and a very tight rope, very narrow tight rope that the Falcons that I don’t think are going to have success uh walking and coming off this injury, this injury is is really derailing that. Uh, and we’ll talk about why I think, you know, Pennock coming off of this injury is much more like Anthony Richardson than he is Joe Burrow. as well as we can kind of look at the Carolina Panthers to kind of see what could be the best case scenario for a Michael Penn redemption. And we’ll get into all of that, guys, as we continue today’s lockdown on Falcons. So, NFL Sundays move fast and one big play and suddenly everything can change. And that’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. our proud sponsor today. When you’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place bets as the action unfolds. 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So essentially with Michael Penn’s injury, it really kind of derails the potential of Michael Penn’s kind of redeeming himself, right? And you know, I think the expectation for a lot of folks that the more optimistic outlook is like, oh, this is just a minor setback and he’ll be back just like Joe Burrow was who suffered an injury in his first year in the NFL and came back and led the Bengals to a Super Bowl the following year. And again, that’s obviously a hopes and dreams that so many Falcon fans, including myself, would love to see. But I think if you put Joe Burrow at one end of the spectrum as like the best case scenario for Michael Penn coming off of this injury, and then you looked at the opposite end of the spectrum, which I would argue was Anthony Richardson, where Anthony Richardson was this raw guy that came back from, you know, had suffered multiple injuries during his first year and and second year in the NFL, and it really derailed his development. If we’re mapping where Michael Pennix’s outcome is likely to be, I think it’s closer to Anthony Richardson than it is to Joe Burrow. Right now, it’s not the same as Anthony Richardson, but it’s closer to given what we know today. We know that Michael Penn needs a lot more work. And that’s work that he’s not really going to get this off season uh because he’s going to be rehabbing from this injury. And we were hoping prior to this injury that that work would include the final the second half of 2025 season and the 2026 offseason to hope that he would be able to put his best foot forward or a better foot forward uh in 2026 than what we have seen to date. And that basically gets thrown completely out the window with this injury. Um and we’ll just sort of have to see when Michael Pennis comes back and when he recovers from this injury and when if and when he’s going to be ready, right? You know, I I I’ve seen a lot of people optimistic that he’ll be ready for week one. I don’t see how you can be that given the nine-month time frame. I I believe if my my dating is correct, you know, he had the the surgery on November 26 and nine months from there is August 26, and you don’t have to do the math to basically realize that if you’re not ready to come back to August 26, you’re probably not going to be able to start the week one. right now. If you had, you know, gotten all of the offseason snaps instead of rehabbing, maybe that would be a different conversation. But because he’s going to be spending all that time rehabbing, he’s not going to be able to do that. And so, you know, it goes back to the point I made earlier where it’s like 30% chance based off my plan, 15% chance for alternative. you know, let’s let’s outline that alternative path where if we’re still pumping, right, Michael Penn in 2026 and we still believe he’s the answer for the Falcons at quarterback, right? The hope is that he comes back strong in 2026, plays well enough, right? Again, not expecting a Joe Burrow type outcome, but uh plays well enough that you go into 2027 feeling good about him being your week one starter or re reasonably good about him being your week one starter, right? Um, now the the issue with the Falcons that they’re going to have to deal with after the 2026 season is they’re going to have to decide to pick up whether or not they’re going to pick up Michael Penn’s fifth year option, which is due in 2028. Um, and you know, because of the injury, um, because of the body of work so far, we’re not really on a path for Penn to have that fifth year option to be get picked up, which I believe based off of projections from like overthecap.com, it’s going to be north of $25 million in in fully guaranteed money, right? You’re not going to be ready to do that. So, it’s very likely at this point in time. Again, we’ll see. You know, that could change, but it’s very likely that you’re you’re not going to pick up that fifth year option. So, Michael Penn’s final year of his rookie contract is going to be the 2027 season. And so, you build up that 2027 season if you’re going to continue to pump Pennix as kind of the year where it all has to come together for Michael Penn. And if it does, then great, great. You you you resign him to a market level contract, $50, $60 million, whatever the case may be, and and you hope that he can continue to build off that in the future and be that franchise guy. But if it doesn’t, what are you doing in 2028? Are you starting over? And did you just hire a new coaching staff? Again, we’re operating under the assumption that the Falcons are going to clean house and hire a new coaching staff and a new front office and GM and all that stuff this offseason. And so, are you going to basically kind of, for lack of a better term, hamstring the next regime, first two years of what you’re likely only going to have three years, uh, in terms of, you know, likelihood of of having an opportunity in this league. um by basically insisting that that they’re they have to fix Michael Penn. And it’s like maybe you can pull that off. Again, that’s where to me that 15% chance comes from. Um but like what are the odds that you know you’re going to hit on that 15% chance, right? And it’s going to sound harsh, but like what is the upside at this point based off of what we know about Michael Penn right now with Michael Penn, right? Like when you look at Michael Penn and his game, you’re sitting here going, “Oh, he’s got a big time arm.” Right? That was a big part selling point of Michael Penn, but this year he’s been one of the least efficient vertical passers in the NFL. So, you’re not even getting the the one strength that Michael Penn has is not really paying off to you in terms of the big time throws that you saw at the end of last season in 2024. It hasn’t paid off to you really at all in 2025. In fact, like you look at some of his vertical passing, he’s the worst vertical passer than Desmond Ritter. And Desmond Ritter was at best a league average uh vertical passer. And really, he wasn’t a league average vertical passer. who was just basically a a Drake London merchant and just throwing 50-50 balls at Drake London that were, you know, 7030 balls when you threw it to Drake London. And so, you’re not getting Pennix’s greatest strength, you’re also getting a lot of weaknesses. You’re you’re talking about, we talked about this all season long, the lack of mobility, the inconsistent accuracy, the inability to reliably attack the middle of the field. This is one of the reasons why, like I sit here and I go, like he’s not going to be Gerald Burrow, or at least he’s very unlikely to be Joe Burrow. that Joe Burrow was a pocket quarterback similar to Michael Penn, but was good winning from the pocket because Joe Burrow came into the league with needing a lot less work than what we have seen Michael Penn need at this point in time, right? And all the things that you’re hoping Michael Penn develops over the next two years that you run it back with him potentially in 26 and 27 that just kind of come out of, you know, thin air and develop for him that haven’t developed so far. Joe Burrow already had those things coming into league. Joe Burrow was one of the most accurate quarterbacks that I’ve ever evaluated in the 25 years I’ve been evaluating quarterbacks and I’m sure other people would agree with me on that s point. And while Joe Burrow is by no means a mobile quarterback, was very good at, you know, maneuvering within the pocket to find those windows, it’s one of the reasons why he’s been able to thrive as a top five quarterback despite playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in football for the last five years, right? And that is not Michael Penn. And again, that’s why like I sit here and I go like Joe Burrow needed a lot less development coming into the league and so could take off in year two coming off his injury. Uh because he didn’t need that time to develop while Pennix does, right? And that’s why I say he’s much more of an Anthony Richardson type. Now he’s not again not as raw as Anthony Richardson was coming into the NFL. Doesn’t have the same level of accuracy concerns that Richardson had coming into the NFL, but it’s a similar sort of situation where you just can’t develop. These guys need reps, right? when we’re talking about Penn, when we’re talking about Anthony, when we’re talking about all quarterbacks, but the amount of reps that certain players need, uh, depends on the player. And Penn certainly needs reps. Maybe not as many as Anthony Richardson, but he’s not going to get those reps because we’re dealing with this injury situation. And so, you’re just kind of hoping, well, whatever reps he gets in 2026, that those reps are going to pay off in 2027. And I just doesn’t make a ton of sense in my opinion for this regime to kind of hamstring themselves to uh, Michael Penn in that way, right? You can look up the road to I 85 and look at the Carolina Panthers where to me the better outcome, one of the more favorable outcomes for Michael Penn if the Falcons do decide to run it back with him is similar to Carolina with Bryce Young. Now Carolina’s in a position right now where they’re in a position where they can snap their, you know, eight, sevenyear losing streak this year, so it won’t be eight, right? Then and potentially make the playoffs, right? So Carolina’s in a good spot. Like Carolina is basically delivering on the Arthur Smith blueprint, which is we’re going to run the football. We’re going to they made significant improvements to their defense and Bryce Young is out here doing an effective job managing the game. Now, he’s had two very good games in the last three g weeks just like he finished last year strong, but overall the body of work with Bryce Young basically is kind of telling you that he’s probably at best a league average quarterback that can manage the game and shouldn’t be the is not the engine for that team success. Now, we’ll see what Bryce Young is able to do the rest of the season. We’ll see what he does next year. But Carolina’s kind of had to hit their hitch their wagon wagon to Bryce Young. That was one of the things that they did with Dave Canales, right? He signed up to basically be like, I I gotta fix Bryce Young. He was the number one overall pick. They gave up a ton of assets to go get him. Ownership gave this mandate to basically say to the next coach, which was Dave Canales when they hired him after the 2023 season, you got to fix Bryce Young. Um, and have they fixed Bryce Young? They’ve gotten more out of him than certainly Frank Wright’s coaching staff did. But do you this has been the the the ongoing talking point in Carolina is Bryce Young the answer? And the answer right now is like and that to me is kind of probably the best, you know, maybe not the best case scenario, but you know what I’m saying? One of the better outcomes for a Michael Penn if the Falcons go down that road where it’s like, oh, we’ll get to the end of 2027 and are we going to feel like Michael Penn is, you know, that bonafide top 10, top 12 quarterback? I was like maybe, but probably not based off of where we’re headed right now. And so to me, I don’t think the Falcons have to hitch their wagon to Michael Pennix in the future like the Panthers did with Bryce Young, right? They didn’t give up a ton of assets. They shouldn’t have an ownership mandate, right? They have an offramp in 2027 uh to and and to basically the argument I’m making is that they should not miss that off-ramp. you know, instead of looking down at their phone, if you get the analogy, uh, and they miss the off-ramp, uh, to get a new a new and different and hopefully better quarterback, um, they should take that offramp, right? Put the phone down and lock in on on, you know, what you’re doing driving. And so to me, I think the last thing that this next regime hopefully that will be coming in, you know, in the next few months, um, should do is to kind of tie themselves to Michael Penn for the next two plus years. and basically be like, “Well, he’s our only answer.” And it’s like, “He’s not.” You have an opportunity to have a different answer, potentially a better answer in 2027 when you get a first round pick back in what should be a better draft year, but we know that’s what they say every year. And it it’s sometimes true and sometimes not. So, again, that’s why I go back to the my earlier point where it’s like, is this a guaranteed, you know, bonafide successful plan? No. But to me, like this is your best path forward than necessarily like we got to make it work with Michael Penn. You don’t have to make it work with Michael Penn. That’s I won’t say the beauty of this situation, but like it’s it’s a it’s the only silver lining that you have where you now have an opportunity to build that offramp to Michael Penn. Now, speaking of offramps, where the Falcons are about to take their offramp to Kurt Cousins um this off season, we’ll talk about why Kirk Cousins isn’t the bridge quarterback that the Falcons need to bring in between now and when if and when Michael Pennix returns next year. But we’ll talk about some of the bridge quarterback options that the Falcons have uh headed into this off seasonason as we wrap up today’s lockdown Falcons. Today’s episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. If you’re shopping for the perfect gift this holiday season, something that’s meaningful, personal, and guaranteed to get a reaction. Aura Frames is the gift that delivers every time. It’s not just something you have to wrap. It’s way that you share memories. Because Aura isn’t your average picture frame. 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So, I will say there’s a 98% chance that Kirk Cousins is getting cut this upcoming offseason. All right? And the Falcons just have to figure out how they’re going to distribute his dead money. if they make him a prejune one cut, um they will eat $35 million in dead money in 2026 and then be free of dead money in 2027 and they will save 22.5 million in 2026. If they do that, if they designate a postjune one cut, they will spread that dead money across two years, 2020 22.5 million in 2026, 12.5 million in 2027, and so therefore they’ll save $35 million in 2026 salary cap. Now, it’s very likely the Falcons going to do a prejune one cut as opposed to a post June 1 cut because if you make him a post June 1 cut, you don’t get those savings until June, right? And that means that that’s money that you really can’t spend to improve your roster. All right? Now, the issue with Kirk is going to be there’s about $10 million of that dead money that potentially offsets, right? That basically means that if he were to sign a one-year $10 million deal with another team next off seasonason, right? instead of $35 million in dead money that you would eat, you would become $25 million in dead money. And so that’s one of the reasons why you want to cut Kirk as soon as possible so that you could maximize the chances that he signs elsewhere and get those offsets. Right now, the only reason why you would wait till June, in my humble opinion, to cut Kirk or designate him as a post June one cut, which means cutting him in March, but basically treating him like you cut him in June from a salary cap standpoint, is if you are fully embracing the tank strategy, right? Overthecap.com currently projects the Falcons to have about $3 million in 2026 salary cap and you’re going to need that $22.5 million savings in March uh you know to to field a functional roster. But if you plan on completely sitting out this entire off seasonason and instead waiting till May, June, etc. to just fill the roster with undrafted free agents and street free agents and whatever cheap veterans that are available then to maximize your tanking capacity or as we say, you know, the more PC word, which is take your medicine, wink wink, right? Then yeah, cutting Kirk as a post June 1 designation makes a lot more sense in that regard. So again, you know, we’ll we’ll see where the Falcons go on that, but I I fully expect him to be prejun one cut. Uh just because that’s, you know, I don’t expect the Falcons to embrace the take to the degree that that would require. But, you know, once Kirk is out of the building, you’re going to have to find a new bridge quarterback to get you through 2026. We’ll see if Michael Pennix what his timeline is for return. Again, it could be week one, it could be week four, it could be week 10, it could be never. Who knows at this point in time. And so you need to sign a bridge quarterback that you’re not just comfortable, oh, he’ll start in the first four games and then we’ll turn to Pennix. You need to sign somebody who you’re at least reasonably comfortable that can carry you through the entire 2026 season. And again, in my ideal scenario, someone who’s not going to necessarily go out there and win you like seven or eight games. uh you know that will only keep you compet keep you competitive, but we we we don’t really need to win more than like three or four games so that we can you know maximize our draft uh position heading into 2027 to maximize our chances of of of getting a good quarterback. And so, you know, what are some of those options? This is not meant to be a comprehensive list. Uh Daniel Jones is going to be the top free agent. Don’t expect him to leave Indianapolis. I’ll be curious if Indianapolis actively shops Anthony Richardson just because the Sauce Gardner trade means that the Colts aren’t going to necessarily be in a position to pivot off of Daniel Jeremiah. I keep doing this in my notes, guys. I I list him as DJ. And in my brain, anytime I see the initials DJ, I think Daniel Jeremiah. Daniel Jones. That’s what I mean. Daniel Jones. I I think the Colts will probably because they can’t pivot off of Danny Dimes, they might keep Anthony Richardson just as an insurance policy in 2026. And basically, you’re going to have to make it worth their while to trade for him. It’s a similar conversation with M. Jones in San Francisco. Uh nor am I really interested like those two those two quarterbacks have too much upside in my opinion if you’re embracing uh the take your medicine year if you ask it. So that leaves your your top free agents in terms of like the quoteunquote proven veterans. You got Joe Flacko, Aaron Rogers, Carson Wentz, Marcus Mariota, Russell Wilson, Jimmy Garopppolo. Then the mid-tier free agents, which are the guys that we all know are backups, but you know, maybe you can squint and be like, “Oh, that guy can be a decent bridge.” Mitch Trabiscy, Gardenner Mchu, Tyrod Taylor, uh, Snoop Huntley, right? Pro Bowler Snoop Huntley. Uh then you have really probably the most intriguing tier of free agents this off seasonason is is the reclamation projects and this is just basically the 2021 and 2022 draft castoffs. Trey Lance, Zack Wilson, Malik Willis, Sam Hal, Kenny Picket that are headed to free agency. And then there’s also the trade block guys that I’m sure their respective teams will be interested in in at least hearing phone calls on these guys. Whether or not they will be able to deal any of them remains to be seen, but that includes Anthony Richardson, M. Jones, Kyler Murray’s on that list, Gino Smith is potentially on that list, Justin Fields is on that list, Will Levis, Deshun Watson. Again, I I’m personally I would cross all those guys off my list just because like I’m not interested in the Falcons giving up more draft capital uh to to get a bridge quarterback at this point in time. And so, you know, the the in the two names I’ve seen other Falcon fans kind of throw around there as the most compelling are Malik Willis and Tre Lance as the Reclamation Projects. And they’re interesting in in I don’t necessarily have a horse in this race. Um, but like to me, they’re interesting in the sense that like you would have to in my opinion really embrace the quarterback run game. So, it’s it’s kind of similar to the Jet situation with Justin Fields this past year. um where if you’re going to have Malik Willis and Tre Lance as your quarterback, you’re going to have to really embrace the quarterback run game just because I don’t think either guy has proven that they’re capable of being a pass first quarterback. And you wonder in a world where, let’s say, they are the bridge for the first, you know, two months of the season before Penn comes back that you have one starting quarterback that you’re going to be running, you know, five to 10 times a game and then you bring back Pennix and you’re like, we’re not going to run him at all. Right? you know, you know, coming off that ACL injury. Uh, and so is that mismatching your offense? And so I wonder about Willis and Lance fitting in in a world, especially if you are planning on Michael Pennis coming back. But at the same time, you can argue that the pistol forward offense that everybody so thoroughly loves here in Atlanta, um, does make sense with a Malik Willis or Tre Lance. And so even though how the quarterback fits into that offense changes between those three guys, Willis, Lanson, and Penn, you know, the system is by and large the same system structurally, so so to speak. So you can make an argument there. So that’s interesting uh in in my in my eyes, but like I said, I don’t really have a horse in a race ultimately. I don’t really care who the quarterback is as long as he’s not, you know, winning games, you know. Um, but like, you know, I think whoever your next head coach is going to be is going to influence that decision. So, if you hire Joe Brady, you know, that leads you down a path to Mitch Trabiscy, Jesse Mentor, maybe he’s the Tre Lance guy, Matt Laflur, if he becomes available somehow from the Packers, that gets you to Malik Willis or whatever. So, you know, to me it’s it’s more like we’ll see what we get to the end of the season before like I start going like, “Oh, that’s the guy who we’re going to get uh at this point in time.” So, um those are my thoughts on the those are my general overview thoughts on the on the F direction of the Falcons quarterback position. Again, I think you you want to start a three-year plan. Um and hopefully that pays off in year three in 2028. Uh if you do that rather than just like, “Oh, well, we’ll figure it out later.” Um, I just don’t see that as a viable long-term strategy for the Falcons. But we’ll see what’s what with this coaching staff, with the next coaching staff, with this quarterback, with the next quarterbacks. A lot of things in flux with the Atlanta Falcons. You know, dawn is darkest before the dawn or whatever. The night is darkest before the dawn is. Yeah. Dawn Dawn is darkest before the dawn. Um, the night is darkest before the dawn. So, we’ll see where the Falcons go. We’ll have more conversations about this Jets game. I haven’t even watched the film. Usually I I watch a little bit of the film on Monday, but I’m just like, who cares? Um, but we’ll see if something more compelling comes out when I watch the film for tomorrow’s All2 review. So, continue to make Lockown Falcons your first listen. Um, and check out all the other great shows across the Lockdown Podcast Network, uh, home of the number one spot sports podcast network on the planet and in the galaxy. It is all part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Atlanta Falcons face a turbulent quarterback future as Michael Penix’s injury clouds his hopes. Will a 2027 first-round draft pick deliver the next QB superstar in Atlanta? Host Aaron Freeman explores the odds, the risks, and the uncertain path to stability at the most important position. Kirk Cousins’ likely departure sets the stage for a season of transition and tough salary cap decisions, while fans ponder whether Penix can bounce back like Joe Burrow—or face challenges similar to Anthony Richardson.

Key topics include projected bridge quarterback options for 2026, the potential for a Falcons roster overhaul, and why a strategic “take your medicine” season might be the smartest play. Explore pivotal coaching changes and what the next regime must do to avoid repeating past mistakes. Can Atlanta build a winning team around a new face in 2028—or will history keep repeating under center?

#atlantafalcons #nfl #michaelpenix #kirkcousins #2026nfldraft #2027nfldraft #terryfontenot

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