Michael Penix

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports the Falcons ranked Michael Penix as the 2024 NFL Draft’s second best quarterback.

Caleb Williams was presumably the only QB Atlanta’s front office had ranked above Penix, who the team took with the eighth pick. Fowler said Falcons owner Arthur Blank “loomed large” in the decision to take Penix with a top-10 pick. Blank, per Fowler, “fully endorsed long-term stability at the position, which Kirk Cousins, at age 35, cannot satisfy to the same degree.” After Matt Ryan and Michael Vick ran the Atlanta offense for the better part of two decades, Blank has no interest in a quarterback “carousel,” Fowler said. The strong-armed Penix, 24, should get a fair number of QB1 snaps for the Falcons in this summer’s minicamp and maybe in training camp if Cousins isn’t fully recovered from his 2023 Achilles tear. There remains little chance of Penix starting in 2024.