Sporting News' Vinnie Iyer identified the worst off-season move for all 32 NFL teams from the Dallas Cowboys re-doing the Ezekiel Elliot experiment to the Carolina Panthers paying $100 million for guard Damien Lewis. If you've had a chance to take a look at anything Atlanta Falcons this off-season, this selection should be of no surprise to you. Iyer chose Atlanta's selection of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall as the worst move this off-season for the Falcons.
The Falcons were smart to upgrade QB with Kirk Cousins, knowing they could win the NFC South right away under Raheem Morris and make noise in the playoffs. Then they decided to make a future stash move behind Cousins by taking Penix. Not only was Penix a reach that early, but he also came at the cost of not drafting an immediate impact rookie (pass rusher or otherwise) for Morris’ defense.
On the surface, it's not the best move. However, once you add the context of Atlanta's quarterback position since Matt Ryan left before the start of the 2022 season and the belief that this front office has in their current roster, it starts to make sense.
Atlanta was torn to shreds last off-season for not taking the quarterback position seriously. Now the Falcons are getting torn to shreds for over-correcting and taking it too seriously, if possible.
If this all works out, the Falcons have above-average to really good quarterback play for at least five years, if not more. That feels like it's worth a few more jabs from the national media.
