The Atlanta Falcons are still the talk of the NFL 2024 Draft even on Monday, but we need to ask was this a MASTER PLAN by GM Terry Fontenot or was this a last minute decision? Let’s get into the weeds of the pattern of drafting tendencies of our GM.
First we have to acknowledge that it seems like this new Raheem Morris era is the era of course corrections! What do I mean by that statement? Well let me explain in detail and it will lead me to my opinion of the Penix pick at the 8th pick in the draft!
I Think we all can agree that the only reason coach Arthur Smith was fired is because it ultimately was his decision to go with Desmond Ridder as the QB1 without competition and very few snaps in the preseason! In Arthur Smith hubris, he thought he could coach up Desmond Ridder and he failed miserably which left Arthur Blank no choice but to fire the head coach. With that firing our organization went and hired Coach Raheem Morris as our new head coach! The first course correction by revisionist history as there was a lot of Falcons fans that felt Coach Morris should have moved from the interim role he had after coach Dan Quinn was fired into the head coaching job, but Mr Blank/Rich McKay chose Arthur Smith. That's course correct 1 imo and I’m excited to see coach Morris with our team moving forward! I feel like we wasted three years on a coach that wasn’t ready to be a head coach in the NFL.
2nd course correction is an assumption, but let’s follow the bread crumbles and see where they lead towards. With drafting Penix Jr while just signing Kirk Cousins I feel Terry wanted to draft either Trey Lance or Justin Fields but Arthur Smith only liked Trey Lance as a QB and rumor has it that at the combine Arthur Smith took Fields off his big board due to the interview at the combine. I feel since Terry came from the New Orleans Aints and he saw how they didn’t have a succession plan in place for Drew Brees and how it ultimately set the Saints back that he didn’t want to start his new GM tenure with the same problem.
Unfortunately his hands were tied as Arthur Blank gave Arthur Smith the final vote power for anyone on this roster if he and Terry disagreed on a pick! I feel Terry wanted Lance Or Fields to back up Matt Ryan 1-2 years and start a new era of QB. We see he doing that very thing right now with Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr! This ultimately lead to the Course correction/revisionist history number two we have now! After dealing with Marcus Mariota the first season and then Desmond Ridder the second season I don’t blame him tbh, but we have to figure out was this his plan since he helped pick Coach Morris or was it a spur of the moment thing.
When I say spur of the moment I’m not saying they was clueless coming into the draft and Penix just fell into their lap! What I’m saying is if you did your due diligence prior to and during the combine on Penix I find it VERY HARD TO BELIEVE that you didn’t already understand that Penix had the best or the second best pure Quarterback Arm Talent in the entire draft. I personally wouldn’t have signed Kirk Cousins if I had the conviction of drafting Penix at 8 even if I just signed Kirk to a new contract a month ago!
IMO I think the Falcons went to the combine to secure a deal with the bears for Justin Fields because it was reported on the first morning of the combine that the Falcons and Bears was in heavy negotiations for Justin Fields. After day one no more talks happened and that’s when it was first reported that the falcons are talking to Kirk Cousins agent to get a deal done. By the end of the combine weekend the national media was reporting the Justin Fields to Atlanta was done and the Falcons had moved on to Kirk! Yes of course we spoke with Micheal Penix Jr at the draft, but it seems like our main focus was to secure a Veteran QB and we did!
What a media frenzy we started when we signed Kirk to a 4 year 180 million dollar contract, but it actually was a two-year guaranteed 100 million dollar contract and the other years aren’t guaranteed. Now we have a Quarterback that should lead us not only to a division championship, but who could also lead us in a deep playoff run! Kirko Chains was all over Falcons social media! Kirk even said he could see himself retiring as a Falcons player and didn’t view this as a short term deal. He was here to win a championship to Atlanta and his In-laws since his wife is from the metro Atlanta area!
Now we have our quarterback of the now, but was we ever going to let Kirk play out that contract, or was this the most expensive draft smoke screen of all time? Hmmm…….. It could have been a super plan by the mastermind Fontenot to make everyone in nfl draft circles believe we solved our QB spot with Kirk and meanwhile Terry was cooking up this plan all along and wanted Penix since the regime change in coaches but wouldn’t be able to do this with Arthur smith as his head coach. Or it could have been the draft board was totally different before the fateful Micheal Penix Jr private workouts and after that workout everyone in the falcons brain trust was wowed and sold on Penix as our future franchise Quarterback!
I think it was the workout personally because you DO NOT restructure Taylor Heinicke contract if you had this master plan prior to that private workout! You would have saved 6.95 million if you cut Taylor prior to the roster deadline and nobody would have thought you was drafting a Quarterback because no national media I’ve seen have even mentioned that we not only signed Kirk, but we also traded ridder away and restructured Taylor contract! It’s the combination of all of those actions that has me believing that the workout was ultimately the reason why we draft Micheal Penix at the 8th pick in the draft!
Please don’t get me wrong I was never mad at drafting Penix! I was mad because we went to such expensive lengths to prove we was good at the quarterback position by signing Kirk Cousins and we restructure Taylor Heinicke‘s contract before the private workout in Seattle. I love Penix arm talent period point blank! IMO he was the best quarterback pure arm talent in the draft and that’s even over Caleb Williams. I think that workout made believers out of everyone in the Falcons building and Terry could finally do what he wanted to do 3 years ago!
I'm normally a huge draft grade guy to see how the experts viewed my team drafting, but this year I DO NOT CARE! We did things in an unconventional way so I don’t think anyone is going to give our Falcons a good draft grade this season and I’m totally fine with that! The best I’ve seen is a C- from most national media heads and most rated our draft as D+ or F because they can’t get pass the drafting of Penix when we just signed Kirk Cousins! That’s fine and dandy because we addressed our defensive line needs in the later rounds in day 2-3! I like our draft even though it didn’t match anything my mock draft had! We have a vision and a new direction and I hope it works out for all parties involved! #RiseUp
If you made it to the end thank you for reading the entire thing. Please leave a comment on the draft and if you agree with my theory on how we got Michael Penix Jr!