Falcons evidently passed on 4th round pick from Bears for No. 8 selection

Why, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine.

The 2024 NFL Draft was full of surprises, especially for the Atlanta Falcons, who shocked the world and took quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the 8th overall selection. In case you somehow missed it, the surprise there was that the Falcons had recently signed quarterback Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract with $100 million guaranteed.

The team also found out shortly before the draft that they would likely be punished for tampering with then free agent Cousins, which would like cost the team a draft selection. Well, the draft came and went and the Falcons were docked a 2025 5th round pick. Definitely a slap on the wrist, but a pick is a pick.

With the draft being in the past now, we can all move on, right? Wrong. It turns out the Falcons found yet another way to confuse the masses.

In case you don’t feel like reading the tweet above or watching the included video, let me explain. The Chicago Bears called the Falcons to see if they would swap their pick No. 9 with the Falcons pick No. 8, and throw the Falcons a likely 2025 4th round pick. Although we don’t hear Terry Fontenot’s voice, the answer was no.

Now turning down a trade is fine; it happens all the time. Turning down a seemingly free future 4th round pick is the crazy part. Now perhaps the Falcons REALLY wanted Penix, and were worried Chicago would turn around and flip the pick to someone else. That’s fair. But if there was one team in the entire draft that you could bank on not taking Penix, it was the Bears who had taken Caleb Williams first overall. If the Falcons didn’t think they’d make a trade, turning down a selection with the loss of a draft pick looming is pretty baffling.

If that’s not what the declined trade was about, it looks like the Falcons passed up draft capital they could have used this year. If that’s the case, make it make sense.