The Atlanta Falcons have a new president of football, a new head coach, a new general manager and a new offensive coordinator. And, still, Falcons fans are most interested in talking about the quarterback. It\u2019s a testament to them because the fate of Atlanta\u2019s quarterback position is going to impact Matt Ryan, Kevin Stefanski, Ian Cunningham and Tommy Rees more than any other factor.<\/p>\n
In fact, there were so many questions about the quarterbacks, and the issue has so many layers, that we\u2019re just answering quarterback questions today in Part 1 of this Falcons mailbag. We\u2019ll follow up with Part 2 next week to dive into your non-QB questions.<\/p>\n
Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n
The Falcons underestimated Kirk Cousins\u2019 rehabilitation timetable and how the injury would affect his first year of play. Much of the public is doing the same with Michael Penix Jr. Among the 11 veteran quarterback choices you provided for us<\/a>, who are the top three candidates \u2014 excluding Cousins \u2014 the Falcons might realistically shoot for? \u2014 Seaborn H.<\/p>\n I gather from the three news conferences with the new people in charge at Flowery Branch that there is no clear support of Penix moving forward. How do you rate the answers by Ian, Kevin and Matt? \u2014 Andy H.<\/p>\n How realistic is it that Cousins re-signs and ends up as the starter this year? \u2014 Keith B.<\/p>\n As our questions illustrate, there are several levels to Atlanta\u2019s quarterback discussion, but we\u2019re going to start with Penix because everything else flows from that. Stefanski and Ryan gave vague endorsements of the third-year pro during their introductory news conferences. That was to be expected because neither has had much time to seriously evaluate Penix, and his health does remain a question mark as he works his way back from a partially torn ACL<\/a>. Cunningham didn\u2019t address the quarterback in his opening news conference, but only because Ryan jumped in on a question addressed to them both, asking, \u201cIs Penix your starting quarterback?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNeither of us (is) the head coach of the football team, so we can\u2019t answer your question on that,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cAs we start to get into this process and dive deeper into the roster, how it currently stands, where it\u2019s going in the future, those are conversations that will be a part of it. Quarterback is obviously very important, and we\u2019re excited about Mike and what he\u2019s doing with his rehab. I\u2019ve been up at the facility the last three weeks, and Michael\u2019s been in there attacking that, and he\u2019s in a good space right now. So we\u2019re excited about where he\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n That sounds like a \u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d which is a fair answer. Penix\u2019s results in his first two seasons were mixed. There have been bright spots, but he\u2019s 4-8 as a starting quarterback and 24th in EPA per dropback (0.03), 29th in passing yards per game (196.9), 42nd in off-target percentage (13.9) and 44th in competition percentage (59.6) among quarterbacks with more than 250 pass attempts in the last two years, according to TruMedia.<\/p>\n It would be foolish for Atlanta\u2019s decision-makers to shout from the rafters, \u201cThis is our guy,\u201d especially considering that he\u2019s rehabbing from his fifth season-ending injury. Given that mobility is not a big part of Penix\u2019s game, the knee probably won\u2019t affect him once he\u2019s fully healthy, but there\u2019s a real question about whether that will be closer to Week 1 or Week 8. He suffered the injury on Nov. 16, and the typical recovery timeline is nine to 12 months.<\/p>\n