You can’t make this kind of stuff up. The Falcons continue to raise the bar.
After an offseason where most people thought the organization was on the right track with Raheem Morris and Kirk Cousins in the fold, they get right back to being the butt of the NFL’s jokes.
Whether it’s the weird process that led Atlanta away from Bill Belichick and became a national storyline or drafting Michael Penix less than two months after giving Cousins $100 million in guarantees, this organization continues to surprise me.
The latest involves… Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift? When asked about the Penix pick, new Falcons head coach Raheem Morris had a strange response, telling Atlanta media that he hates it’s such a big story, but that he also doesn’t hate it? Because it’s piqued interest?
I don’t know, man. The Falcons are just a weird organization that doesn’t do things the “right” way. I say that I’m surprised, but should I really be? Probably not.
The Falcons could look like geniuses in a few years if they can properly handle the transition from Cousins to Penix, and the Falcons 2024 8th overall pick ends up being the franchise quarterback.
We know how important the position is in this league, and what it can look like when you don’t have it figured out, a la Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder. However, the Falcons have left themselves a very narrow runway.
If one wheel comes off that metaphoric runway, the entire plane could blow up. The Falcons have the right idea in mind and are trying to emulate the Packers, who have gone from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to now Jordan Love.
It’s a great approach if it works out, but let’s not pretend like Atlanta is in any way similar to Green Bay from an organizational success standpoint. Even the Falcons’ rationale for picking Michael Penix is weird.
It felt like 30 minutes of Terry Fontenot and Raheem Morris trying to defend the pick to a bunch of idiots (us) in the press conference Thursday night. It shouldn’t matter what we (the general public) think, but it seems to be on the forefront of the Falcons’ minds yet they still somehow end up doing the least popular thing.
Like just say, “We like Micheal Penix, hate that it’s such a big storyline. It won’t impact the Atlanta Falcons” and maybe don’t reference Taylor Swift in some weird analogy.
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