Insider addresses rising draft stock of Michael Penix Jr.

NFL insider Jeff Howe of The Athletic explained on the latest edition of the "Eye On Foxborough" podcast how Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. could be the fifth or sixth player at the position selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. 

"It’s not out of the realm of possibility that there are five quarterbacks gone in the first 12 to 13 picks," Howe said, as shared by Lauren Campbell of MassLive. "And Michael Penix went from being a third-round pick to maybe being a fringe first or second-rounder, to a bad national championship game and kind of falling back to the fringe second and third round." 

Penix completed 27-of-51 pass attempts for 255 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions in the 34-13 national title game loss to Michigan. While the draft stock of Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy has risen since that contest, Penix reportedly impressed multiple clubs at the scouting combine. 

"I talked to a team (Monday) that said, 'I can’t rule out the fact that Penix could be a first-round pick again, or a top half of the first round-pick just because there’s enough to like there,'" Howe continued during the podcast. 

Just about everybody assumes the Chicago Bears will make USC quarterback Caleb Williams the draft's first pick. The Washington Commanders hold the second overall selection and have been linked with McCarthy, LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels and North Carolina signal-caller Drake Maye. The New England Patriots are expected to take Daniels, Maye or McCarthy at No. 3, and a team such as the Denver Broncos could move into the top-five to take whoever is still on the board among those three.

In a mock draft published on Wednesday, Field Yates of ESPN predicted that Denver will make Bo Nix of the Oregon the fifth quarterback drafted via pick No. 12. Yates had Penix going to the Las Vegas Raiders in the second round at selection No. 36. 

"What if McCarthy goes two? And then all of a sudden, you’ve got the Patriots thinking they’re just gonna take the best available of Maye and Daniels," Howe said about the draft's quarterback situation. "And now they have their choice of the two. And what type of options or opportunities could that open up? You can’t rule out the possibility that they could trade. I don’t know. Some weird stuff could happen." 

Penix's draft stock has been a moving target in part because he tore his right anterior cruciate ligament twice and suffered injuries to both shoulders while in college. On Tuesday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated mentioned that Penix flashed enough speed while running the 40-yard dash at Washington's pro day to show clubs that his "two torn ACLs haven’t robbed him of the ability to run fast."