Falcons DEI Coaching Staff FAIL Michael Penix Jr.

Falcons DEI Coaching Staff FAIL Michael Penix Jr.

You know what? Let’s replay the Michael Penn clip first. Uh le let’s Yeah, play the You lean on your faith, but like who do you lean on to like help you? Like we haven’t played quarterback. Would you lean on like a former quarterback or your coaches to kind of just help you kind of assess things and good and bad? Um you saying like as far as on the field? Yeah, both. That help you mentally and physically? Oh, um no. like mentally I like my fiance, she’s always there for me. Um, so I know whenever I get home, I it doesn’t matter how I played, she’s always gonna be there for me. She’s gonna have a smile on her face and give me a hug and make me feel feel good no matter what. Um, but as far as, you know, as far as like physically, the on the field stuff, um, it’s it’s not nobody that I’ll talk to like as far as another quarterback or anything like that. You know, I do have people reach out to me. I do have quarterback coaches though back at home um that that reach out to me as well, you know, tell me, hey, like you need to clean this up, clean that up, you know, and everything will be good. So, uh those those guys help me as far as that, too. So, I can shout out them. Jeez. All right, Steve, who are you pointing the finger at? The whole Atlanta organization. I’m stunned by that answer because what I know about football, which isn’t much, but I I know a lot of quarterbacks come off the field, they’re always on the headsets or on the phone, that there’s nobody. Hey, I’ve thought for a while that the second most important coach of any football team at a major level is that offensive coordinator because they’re going to have a direct line to the quarterback. And if your job is directly tied into the success of the quarterback, you better have a guy um whether it’s a coach or maybe a guy like a Chase Daniel or Charlie Batch who they didn’t look at themselves as competitors to the job. They understood I’m the number two guy. Now, maybe Kirk Cousins still feels in his own mind, uh, I’m not here to help you. I’m here to win the job, right? So, that that dynamic doesn’t exist, but Jason, if you go back to Troy Aman early on in his career, he was kind of a rudderless ship. And Jimmy Johnson made a decision to get rid of Shoula’s son, which caused a rip between those two for years. And he hired a guy by the name of Norv Turner. And Troy Aman said, “When it’s all said and done, the most important thing that happened in my career was Norf Turner. In fact, he presented him at the Hall of Fame.” That’s how highly he thought of the impact he made. So, if you’re the Atlanta Falcons, you better find the Norf Turner for Michael Penn as soon as possible. TJ, what do you make of it? I I tend to lean a little more critical of Penn here than either of you while while still acknowledging it’s it’s uh primarily the coach’s fault. But the reason I’d say that is because when you have a staff this large and it’s not just a bunch of DEI guys. All right. Um Zack Robinson. Now the one thing about Zack Robinson is he’s never called plays before. Okay? So he came from the Shawn McVey tree. He was with the Rams his entire coaching career and then came over as the OC over there to call play. So that is something that he he may be a little bit overwhelmed just trying to figure out what’s going on, not coaching personally because one thing that Pennix talked about was that well, you know, I’ll have outside guys, you know, give me some pointers on mechanics and things like that. So he’s looking obviously for a little more of coaching that you don’t always get in the NFL. You know, that is a tough thing where you’re like Raheem Morris and these guys are trying to keep their jobs, right? They’re trying to win games. They’re they’re looking big picture. By the time you get to the NFL, uh most of these guys are not thinking, “Hey, we really need to fix your quarterback mechanics.” They’re thinking, “You need to learn this offense. We got to get some yards. We got to score some touchdowns. Let’s go. We’ll worry about your mechanics later.” And he is talking about his mechanics a little bit there. That’s what a lot of these guys do in the offseason with quarterback coaches, not necessarily with their guys on the field. But Zack Robbins there, T.J. Yates, both former quarterbacks. North Carolina quarterback TJ, Zack Robinson at Oklahoma State. Um, you know that these guys are played at Grahamling, I think, or somewhere in H.B.CU. Yeah. Yes. There’s a lot of coaches there. And look, he’s the focal point. Obviously, the quarterback’s the most important guy. To the degree that he needs something, the coaches have to find a way to give it to him. Okay. So, you should never get to the point where he feels like he he has to answer a question honestly to the media. But also, you do have a job as a player on the team to find somebody to invest in. You You go in and say, “Hey, I’m not getting what I need. If we’re going to win some games, you have to help me here and go invest in.” I I told you the story this morning that like as a freshman at Missou, um nobody cared about me because I wasn’t important to the team. Obviously, I wasn’t really playing in any, you know, I played a few plays a game or whatever. And but I connected with one of our assistant strength coach guys who’s now, I think, the one of the head strength coaches at the OKC Thunder. and you invest in somebody and every guy on the team did that whether it was a graduate assistant or whoever. There’s a million coaches out there. You go look at the sideline of these NFL there’s a beyond the guys that there’s a billion people out there. There’s a lot of teammates out there and you’re telling me you can’t find anybody to help you. Some of that is on you Jason. Yeah. You know what this reminds me of? Remember any given Sunday? Remember that great movie I remember the movie. I don’t know if it was great. Steam and Willie Beam, remember when he took over, but the older white quarterback still thought, well, wait a minute. I should be getting my job back here. And there’s that friction. When you don’t have a backup that understands, I’m there for you. Because there have been guys that have made their living by being the mentor, by being basically a great backup and a quarterback coach, not in name officially, but in role. And every time they come off the field, they’re like, “Hey, they’re playing you this way, this way, or this way.” And do this, right? Don Stro was like that. He was a great backup quarterback. Steve Deberg was like that. Steve Burline played that role well when he wasn’t a starter. I I think and again I’m not blaming Kirk Cousins because he came in with the belief that hey you signed me to a big contract I’m going to be your number one and then soon as they soon as they signed him they drafted a quarterback number one he think wait a minute he immediately looked at Penn not as a guy that he’s going to mentor he looked at him as competition do you know who else did this Jason um to some degree and why this may be a big shot at Kurt Cousins Kurt Warner got signed to the Giants and then they drafted Eli Manning and then immediately They came and put Eli in and the first thing Curt Warner said to the coaching staff is, “Don’t you dare put me back in. That’ll destroy this kid’s career and I’ll do everything I can to make sure he succeeds.” Then he went to Arizona and went to another Super Bowl. I I I I’m struggling to blame Penn or Cousins. I I just I can’t do it. I I I I can’t. Kirk Cousin and And maybe This this is an indic Arthur blank and I’m I can’t think of who the general manager is but I would blame Arthur blank the general manager and the head coach. You can’t find that. Yeah. You can’t hire a guy at $50 million a year and then draft his replacement immediately. That’s a recipe for chaos. When the whole, hey, we’re getting Kirk Cousins. We’re going to pay him all this money. There are people within that organization and within that coaching staff that are all in with Kirk Cousins. And then there’s probably another group that’s all in with Michael Penn Jr., you’ve invited chaos. You got to choose the direction and stick with it. And we gave the Falcons a lot of credit or some people did at the time when they was like, “Hey, this is smart. You got Kirk Cousins for two or three years and Michael Pennis can sit and evolve and that’s all been blown up after one year. Did Did Kirk Cousins make it a full year as a starter? Did Did this happen at the end of last year?” I believe end of last year. Yeah. They they went a whole different direction almost immediately. That’s the mistake. Don’t ever hand someone $50 million a year and then draft someone else immediately before this guy. you’re inviting the kind of chaos and to where this guy there’s probably divided loyalty and and then to me there’s like I blame owner GM head coach far more before I could get anywhere close to blaming Michael Pennix or Kirk Cousin Steve you get go ahead TJ no I just you got to have some personal agency somewhere I I don’t think it’s helpful for Michael Penn to be looking around saying, “Nobody will help me.” Your job as a as a quarterback as the number one most important person. Well, let’s let’s argue him in context. And I get you can infer that he said no one will help me. It is a cry for help, but they ask him who’s helping you and he said his girlfriend and high school. Maybe this is him. Like, hey man, I’ve tried everything and now that I’ve been given an opportunity to try something else in a press conference and put some pressure on some because I guarantee you he’s getting some attention this week and and so but anyway, let’s stick to what he actually did say, which Well, I don’t know how else to take it. Got it. I’m just saying let’s stick to what he did say. And yes, the inference is clear but or can be taken that way. But you know, he would argue that, hey, that’s not what I said. They asked me who I’m getting help from and I told them. Okay. So, let me rephrase. Um, I’m not getting help from anybody here. That’s another way to say it. And so, you know, I’ve I’ve had to go out there. Like, at some point, you have to take agency, right? And like you you created a potential scenario that but why aren’t you giving him any credit that maybe he’s taking agency right now by pointing out, hey, I’m not getting the help that I want. I’ve complained privately. Now I’m complaining publicly because all you’ve done is destroy the season. It’s the same thing AJ Brown’s doing. We’ll talk about later. Once you go to the media, it’s over. You’re not going to get any help now. You’re not you’re not going to nag somebody into helping you through the media. It’s not going to happen. I I I If nagging didn’t work, all these wives would be out of a job and I’m in divorce right now. Well, what’s the divorce right now? Squeaky wheel gets the wheel. Squeaky wheel does get the oil. That that idiot. Squeaky squeaky wheel is the first one replaced. Okay, that’s how that works. Like what you saw? Hit that like button, subscribe, and check out the full episode by clicking the link below.

Michael Penix Jr. admitted during a press conference that he doesn’t have any other quarterbacks to talk to or anyone to mentor him, despite the Atlanta Falcons staff being filled with coaches and support staff.

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