Michael Penix Needs Yet Another ACL Surgery and the Falcons' QB Plan Has Completely Blown Up

If you can believe it, the Atlanta Falcons' plan to give a 36-year-old Kirk Cousins $180 million only to then turn around and draft a 24-year-old and injury-prone Michael Penix Jr. does not seem to be working out. Penix will have surgery on his partially torn left ACL after needing surgery on his right ACL twice in college. This is Penix's fifth season-ending injury in eight seasons between college and the NFL.

There is no valley too low and no ineptitude too ridiculous for this franchise to reach. I have no doubt this situation will somehow get worse.

Falcons GM Terry Fontenot's justification for drafting Penix when he did was that Atlanta was supposedly not going to be bad enough in the future to draft a quarterback in the top 10. Fast forward 18 months and not only might the Falcons have a top five pick in next year's NFL Draft, but they won't even get to use it because Fontenot gave it away to the Rams as part of a king's ransom to take a second pass rusher in the first round last year.

So presumably heading into 2026, Atlanta will cut Kirk Cousins — whom it will have paid $100 million for two seasons of absolutely nothing — and have Penix at 26 years old coming off a third ACL reconstruction with 12 career starts under his belt. Seems like everything is going according to plan.

Please also recall Fontenot said out loud in front of microphones it would be great if Penix didn't play for four or five years because it would mean the Falcons are doing so well at quarterback. Turns out he will, in fact, be on the bench for years, but it will be because of injury problems that were completely foreseeable.

I hate this team so much.