The truth is, we won’t know how each team did during the 2024 NFL Draft for several years, but the Atlanta Falcons are already catching heat. You know the story: the Falcons shocked the world by making Michael Penix Jr. the eighth overall pick despite committing $100 million in guarantees to Kirk Cousins less than two months ago.
Internally, the Falcons love their quarterback room, giving them a high-end veteran who can help propel the offense from a bottom-third scoring unit to one that can be one of the NFL’s best. They also have their ideal long-term starter set to watch and learn valuable lessons from Cousins, a 12-year-vet who has a borderline unhealthy obsession with perfecting his NFL career.
Yet, externally, NFL executives are mystified over the Falcons’ game plan.
“I’d love to know what the conversations were in Atlanta leading up to that and why there was no adult supervision. Truth be told, they could be good next year with Kirk Cousins, come away with the 25th or 26th pick, and then you take a quarterback in that range. That is what Green Bay did with Jordan Love, and it is fundamentally different from what Atlanta just did.”
Anonymous former NFL GM discussing Atlanta Falcons
Other execs criticized the Falcons’ decision to draft Ruke Orhorhoro instead of Illinois’ Jer’Zhan Newton with the 35th overall pick, wondering how they didn’t pick the “perfect fit” for Raheem Morris’ defense.
Yet, the biggest skeptics still can’t get over the Penix pick, basically putting the Falcons in a situation where they’re either forced to kick Cousins to the side much earlier than his four-year agreement suggests, or wasting a very valuable selection on a player who won’t see the field for the first two years, barring injury. Either way, it’s a head-scratcher to most.