Read more about the Falcons<\/a><\/p>\nAfter last season\u2019s baptism by fire in Penix\u2019s starts in the final three regular-season games, there\u2019s rightful optimism and excitement about what he can bring in the full-time role, succeeding Kirk Cousins as the play caller. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s a different energy around the Falcons and real talk about whether they can wrestle the division from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers \u2014 and a due amount of that conversation starts with Penix and the immediate impact that he can make, now that he\u2019s been given the keys to unlock the offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, just the leadership role of being the guy, being QB-1,\u201d passing game coordinator T.J. Yates said. \u201cIt\u2019s not only on the field; it\u2019s in meetings, too, whether he asks Zac a question or makes a suggestion in meetings and talks to the guys on how he wants a certain route run, or how he sees it. Just so everybody\u2019s seeing the field and seeing the offense through the same set of eyes, so we can all be on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where some of the growth will have to come, in Penix putting his own stamp on the team and getting buy-in from everyone. <\/p>\n
The leadership mantle isn\u2019t always easy for young quarterbacks to handle, but the indications are that it\u2019s already happening during the offseason and into organized team activities. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he goes out in the field, he is a leader by demeanor and by his actions. He\u2019s not a big vocal guy. He\u2019s not going to sit there, hoot and holler and do all these things. He does it in his own genuine way, and guys gravitate toward it,\u201d Yates said. \u201cAnd it is awesome to see, just in the first couple of weeks out there with the guys on the grass, we\u2019ve been taking a lot of strides so far, and we\u2019re excited to actually get into OTAs and do it against the defense, and kind of take that next step in the progression. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s been something that\u2019s really fun, so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mental and physical<\/p>\n
For young quarterbacks, the twists and turns of the learning curve can be a bit perilous \u2014 and it\u2019s not a straight-line course. <\/p>\n
Every quarterback figures things out on a different timeline \u2014 the Washington Commanders\u2019 Jayden Daniels\u2019 rookie season is an obvious outlier \u2014 but there doesn\u2019t seem to be any undue pressure on Penix to conjure that same sort of magic immediately. <\/p>\n
It\u2019ll be a process of combining the mental reps and film study to the physical skills on the field. And that takes time. There will be mistakes and bumps along the way, but it\u2019s all expected. <\/p>\n
Part of that acclimation process started with quarterbacks coach D.J. Williams, who spent most of last season just working with Penix to determine the young quarterback\u2019s learning style. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was good last year to have some time with him as a backup to where I really understood how he learned? And he\u2019s a super smart guy,\u201d Williams said. \u201cHe\u2019s quiet; he doesn\u2019t ask many questions, but he\u2019s super smart, super intelligent, and he\u2019ll take it all in and then start to really understand it, the more time goes on. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then once he gets out there on the field, it\u2019s like it all clicks, and he\u2019s got it. But I think last year was really good as far as just learning how he learns.\u201d <\/p>\n
The next step will be in putting it all together on the field, making the right reads and the right decisions. It\u2019s all faster on the field and when the plays are live, but it\u2019s all right there for the taking for Penix. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think any time you start to play, you just get better, at the end of the day,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe\u2019re all trying to get better from a standpoint of working out and running, and those things like that, as far as the players are concerned, but at the end of the day, you got to play in the games to get better \u2014 and I think he did that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He\u2019s not the rookie backup any longer. He\u2019s that dude. \u201cI would say that Mike approaches everything pretty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[2566,223,254,2554,260,224,7,6337,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-69891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-ajc-freelancer","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-carolina-panthers","13":"tag-falcons","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-mercedes-benz-stadium","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114550930445246039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}