NFL.com's Ranking 'Quirk' of Michael Penix Jr. Borders on Absurd

NFL.com’s Nick Shook went through the exercise of ranking each division by the strength of its starting quarterbacks. The Atlanta Falcons and NFC South came in at No. 7 of eight divisions, only ahead of the AFC South.

With Baker Mayfield as their No. 6 quarterback and only proven starter, it’s understandable the NFC South would come in the bottom quadrant of the eight divisions, but even Shook calls out the absurdity of ranking the Saints’ Tyler Shough (29) ahead of Michael Penix Jr. (30). 

“I know, it seems wildly unfair to rank Shough, a second-round pick who enters the league with less juice than most QBs in line to start as rookies, one place ahead of Penix, a former first-rounder who showed enough in his limited starts last season to convince the Falcons to move forward with him in 2025,” wrote Shook on NFL.com. “But that's just one of the quirks of the way I accounted for low-experience players here.”

Quirks? There’s a saying of “garbage in, garbage out” when it comes to data and equations. If you put in garbage data, you’re going to get garbage results.

Shook made no effort to explain his quirk, just that it was a quirk. As unlikely as it seems, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Shough turns out to be a better quarterback than Penix in 2025. The NFL is littered with underdog stories, but to start them there for no reason other than “quirk” causes the rest of his musings to be questionable at best. 

Going into the coming season, especially when you factor in a veteran offensive line and the plethora of elite offensive weapons like Bijan Robinson and Drake London who surround Penix, he's unquestionably being put in a hugely advantageous position to succeed.

While Shook placing Shough ahead of Penix for now might seem more than a little blasphemous, the Falcons' second-year starter has enough control of the narrative to turn it fully on its head.

At the very least, the very first snippet for the Falcon bulletin board has arrived good and early.