The Atlanta Falcons shocked the world on Thursday night by selecting Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 pick. No one saw it coming, especially since they signed Kirk Cousins this offseason.
Naturally, fans questioned Atlanta’s decision since it just spent $180 million on Cousins. After the draft was over, Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris explained their thought process.
Fontenot made it clear that Cousins is their starter for the 2024 season. The hope is that Penix will eventually be his successor.
“Kirk Cousins is our quarterback,” Fontenot said, via Pro Football Talk. “We’re very excited about Kirk. We’re very excited about this team. Michael Penix is … we’re talking about the future. You look at the future. You look at the big picture. We are very excited about that quarterback room, and again, Kirk is our quarterback. But adding Michael Penix is thinking about the future.”
Morris also stressed that Atlanta made this move because the team wants to have a succession plan in place.
“It’s pretty simple for us: When you get Kirk Cousins, and you talk about short-term winning and talk about winning right now, which we know we will be in a position to do, we won’t have the ability to be picking this high again with the guy that we got,” Morris said. “We were lucky enough to watch Matt Ryan play 14 years … with the Atlanta Falcons. At some point, you’ve got to find a way to have that succession plan in place. It just so happened it presented itself tonight.”
Fontenot and Morris were asked about Cousins’ reaction to the pick. They said that information was private.
#Falcons GM Terry Fontenot and coach Raheem Morris on Kirk Cousins’ reaction to their Round 1 stunner: drafting Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 overall. (🎥 @AtlantaFalcons) pic.twitter.com/tSDXacAd4z
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 26, 2024
Cousins probably wasn’t too thrilled about the pick, which makes sense considering he wants to be Atlanta’s starter for years to come.
It’ll be interesting to see how this situation plays out for the Falcons.