{"id":718202,"date":"2026-01-31T04:09:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T04:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/718202\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T04:09:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T04:09:19","slug":"michael-penix-jr-talks-acl-recovery-falcons-hiring-kevin-stefanski-and-matt-ryan-wsb-tv-channel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/718202\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Penix Jr. talks ACL recovery, Falcons hiring Kevin Stefanski and Matt Ryan \u2013 WSB-TV Channel 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2014 Channel 2 Action News is hearing from Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. for the first time since his ACL surgery.<\/p>\n

Penix Jr. caught up with Channel 2 sports director Zach Klein about his rehab, when he expects to be on the field again and the Falcons offseason hires. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019s morale and what is a day in the life of Michael Penix Jr. looking like right now?” Klein asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a lot of rehab, you know, trying to get back to 100%, so I can be out there on the field with my guys,” said Penix Jr.<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n

The Falcons quarterback had season-ending surgery in November<\/a> for the third ACL injury of his football career. He told Klein that it didn\u2019t know exactly what happened when he first went down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt it two other times. But it didn\u2019t feel the same. But it kind of hurt to put pressure on it when I tried to stand up and I knew it was something awful about it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The recovery time for a partially torn ACL can take months. But Penix Jr. said he is focused on being Week 1 ready if the doctors allow it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s my doctor\u2019s call, but like I said, I\u2019m gonna do everything in my power to make sure I make that call easy for him and make sure that he feels like I\u2019m able to go out there and play confident,” he said. <\/p>\n

Whenever Penix Jr. returns, it will be with a new head coach in place. The Falcons hired Kevin Stefanski as the 20th head coach in franchise history. <\/p>\n

Penix Jr. met briefly with his new coach at the team\u2019s facility in Flowery Branch. Klein asked what\u2019s the key to a great bond between the quarterback and his head coach. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to spend that time with somebody to get know them. Obviously, like you say, Coach Stefanski, he\u2019s very locked in, but he has personality to him as well and I can see that,\u201d Penix Jr. said. \u201cBut I feel like he\u2019s a great coach and I look forward to building a relationship with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: New Falcons coach shares his vision for tough, physical team<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Penix Jr. will also get to pick the brain of franchise legend Matt Ryan, who Atlanta hired as its new president of football. He plans to ask Ryan a lot of questions given his legacy and resume, but also acknowledges Ryan has his own job to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you know, he\u2019s made a statement and he said that he\u2019s not here to be my quarterback coach,\u201d Penix Jr. said. \u201cHe has a ton of faith in Coach Stefanski, Tommy Rees and, you know, whatever quarterback coach we bring in.”<\/p>\n

As he competes his rehab, Penix Jr. recently partnered with Invisalign to focus for confidence in his smile and his overall health. The one thing that would bring an even bigger smile to his face? Leading the Falcons back to the playoffs for the first time since 2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to break it. I know we will. We have the guys in the room,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Klein asked Penix Jr. where he got his big smile from: his mom or Invisalign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a trick question, but I\u2019ll give it to both.\u201d<\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Channel 2 Action News is hearing from Atlanta Falcons starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2074],"tags":[265,223,254,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-718202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115987753881098738","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718202","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=718202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}