Former Las Vegas Raiders GM Opens Up on Michael Penix Jr. Draft

The Atlanta Falcons surprised the football world when they took Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. While it was most surprising because the Falcons had just splashed the cash on free agent Kirk Cousins, Penix Jr. was rarely mocked in the top-10 ahead of his selection by the Falcons.

If he was going to be picked in the first round at all, the prevailing thought was that he would go to the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 13. Broncos head coach Sean Payton said he expected the Vikings to take J.J. McCarthy, the Broncos would select Bo Nix, and then the Raiders would select Penix Jr. 

When the Falcons took Penix Jr. at eight, Payton held firm at No. 12, but the Raiders came away without a quarterback but still got rookie phenom Brock Bowers.

On a recent podcast appearance with The 33rd Team, former Raiders general manager Tom Telasco admitted he probably wasn’t going to take Penix Jr. at 13. 

"Did a lot of work, talked a lot about it. But in the end probably not -- probably not," Telesco told the guys on The 33rd Team podcast about taking Penix. "You know, now looking back, if I knew I only had one year there - maybe that would have been different - I don't know."

While it’s easy to say “no” after the draft, Telesco admits he was looking for more of a sure thing with the Raiders roster needing an influx of numbers. Giving up picks to move up in the draft wasn’t appealing.   

"So the thought was, we need to bring up the talent level of this team on both sides of the ball, said Telesco. “So, because we had talked -- like Jayden Daniels -- that one would have been easy. That's an easy one.

“But then, when we got into the J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix, and Michael Penix, as far as trading up for those guys. That was not as much into trying to trade up for one of those quarterbacks. To give up that many assets, because we're going to have to give up a lot, give up a lot of draft picks. We need as many as possible to build up the team, so that would have been a hard decision, a hard move to make to trade up for one of those quarterbacks."