The Falcons drafting Michael Penix Jr. 8th overall is far and away their most shocking use of a first-round pick in my 28 years of life, and I’m not sure it will ever be topped. Raheem Morris and Terry Fontenot can talk all day about the Packers method and how it has worked over the last couple of decades for Green Bay, but nobody has ever handed a quarterback a four-year, $180 million contract and followed it up by drafting his successor with a top 10 draft pick. It hasn’t been done before, and I don’t imagine we will see it again for quite some time.
That doesn’t mean it can’t work. The runway is small, but there’s a possibility Kirk Cousins is good enough to make the Falcons perennial Super Bowl contenders for the next 2-3 years before handing the reins to Penix, who turns out to be even better, keeping football relevant in Atlanta for the next 15 years. That’s what the Falcons, who have been stuck in QB purgatory since trading Matt Ryan to the Colts, are hoping for, but disaster is also a distinct possibility.
On our most recent episode of SportsTalkATL, Alex and I break down the shocking decision to take a quarterback so high in the draft after just signing Kirk Cousins, and why it’s highly unlikely we begin to see teams follow in the Falcons’ footsteps anytime soon.
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Photo: Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire
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