The Falcons didn’t only shock their fan base when they selected Michael Penix Jr. with the 8th overall pick less than two months after giving Kirk Cousins a free agent deal worth $180 million. Raheem Morris and Terry Fontenot sent shockwaves through the entire NFL world.
Several clubs, including Atlanta’s old rival Sean Payton, were looking for a signal caller in the draft and were caught off guard by the Falcons decision.
“You try to simulate what you think’s gonna happen,” Payton said on Scoop City podcast with Dianna Russini and Chase Daniel. “We felt the Giants were gonna be an at-large team, not necessarily for Bo, but for a quarterback. Are they taking one, or not? And then, they didn’t. So, pretty soon, there’s three teams with a need. The Vikings, the Broncos, and the Raiders. And then Atlanta, out of nowhere, no one saw that.”
Hell, Kirk Cousins was even surprised by the entire situation. Falcons fans thought there was no way their team would draft a player that wouldn’t see the field in meaningful games for at least one year and possibly even two.
Sean Payton got “his” guy in Bo Nix, and I say it like that because I sincerely doubt Nix was their QB1, but the Falcons might have thrown a threw a wrench into their old rival’s plans.
That’s something that will never get old, and remember, Sean Payton is the guy who still loses sleep over the fact that the Chiefs jumped him in the draft and took Patrick Mahomes.
Can you blame him? But it would be nice to give him a little more to think about at night if Penix is to go on and have a stellar career in Atlanta.
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