NFL.com Ranks Michael Penix Jr. Tier 7, and That's OK

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Micahel Penix Jr. enters his first season as the full-time starter when he takes the field on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 1:00 p.m. in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Being it’s the week the NFL kicks off, media outlets have been flush with preseason rankings and predictions.

NFL.com’s Nick Shook is no different, ranking all of the quarterbacks in the NFL, but more important than a numerical rank, he breaks them into tiers.

He has eight tiers, and Penix falls into Tier 7, which on the surface might seem like a knock, but in reality, that’s where he placed the other first-year starters Cam Ward of the Tennessee Titans and J.J. McCarthy of the Minnesota Vikings.

If Shook has any qualms about where he ranks Penix, he would have liked to have been able to see more from the 2024 No. 8 overall pick in order to get a better look. He’s not alone with that opinion after Falcons fans endured watching the season spiral out of control in a 1-5 stretch that saw Kirk Cousins throw for one touchdown and nine interceptions. 

“We're now in unproven territory,” Shook wrote on NFL.com. “To my eyes, Atlanta waited too long to promote Michael Penix Jr. to starter but has since fully committed to the 2024 first-round pick, giving him the keys and the runway of a full season as their QB1. We know he has a live arm, but we don't know how he'll handle the rigors of the job over 18 weeks.”

The early return on Penix’s three-game cameo last season was encouraging, and he’s been razor sharp in training camp heading into the season.

“I feel ready. I'm ready to go,” Penix said on Wednesday. “You’ve got to be. There's no other choice. I pride myself to make sure that each and every week I'm always ready come game day. So, I'm going to do whatever I can for the rest of this week to make sure that I'm ready physically, mentally to go out there and put on my best performance.”

Offensive coordinator Zac Robinson engineered the sixth-ranked offense last season in total yards, despite the problems at quarterback in the middle of the season. He likes what he’s seen from Penix.

“I think he's ready to go,” Robinson said on Wednesday. “Obviously, we've had a great competitive training camp where we've repped a lot of the plays that we'll end up running on Sunday. Of course, there are going to be new things with a game-plan-specific menu. But he's ready to go. We've got three more good days, and we’ve really got Saturday as a clean-up walkthrough where we'll exhaust all the preparation that we need for it.

“But he's ready to go. All these guys are ready to go. You're just fired up for the guys to just go play at this point, and it'll be fun to see them just cut it loose and see what we’ve got on Sunday.”  

While we don’t know how he’ll hold up over 17 games, Atlanta Falcons fans are certainly excited to find out, starting on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.