Raheem Morris Stunning Choice Of Words Defending Michael Penix Week 3 Performance

In the grand theater of NFL coaching, there’s a fine art to managing a quarterback controversy. It requires a delicate touch, a bit of political savvy, and the ability to inspire confidence in your chosen guy without completely demoralizing the backup. Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, it seems, decided to skip that lesson and went straight for the verbal sledgehammer.

After a truly putrid 30-0 beatdown at the hands of the Carolina Panthers in Week 3, a game where Michael Penix Jr. looked less like a franchise quarterback and more like a guy who won a fan contest, the questions were inevitable. Is it time to yank the second-year starter and go back to the grizzled veteran, Kirk Cousins?

What Did Raheem Morris Say?

Raheem Morris, in a masterclass of how not to handle the media, stepped up to the podium and delivered a quote that will live in Falcons infamy. When asked if Penix’s job was in jeopardy, Morris didn’t just say no.

“Kirk lost his job last year,” Morris declared with a straight face. “We’re not even close to that with Mike. He had a bad game.”

Let’s just unpack that for a moment. You’re trying to build up the confidence of your young, struggling quarterback. That’s noble. But your strategy is to publicly remind everyone—including the $180 million man standing on your sideline—that he was benched last season? It’s like trying to compliment your new girlfriend by telling her she’s not nearly as bad as your ex, right in front of your ex. Good luck with that awful contract, that’s the only reason why he is still here.

Raheem Morris’s Questionable Logic

To add another layer of absurdity to this situation, the premise of Morris’s defense is just flat-out wrong. He’s defending Penix by claiming he’s not as bad as the guy who lost his job. The problem? The numbers tell a very, very different story.

In his 14 starts last year, Kirk Cousins wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire, but he was serviceable. He threw for over 3,500 yards, 18 touchdowns, and led the team to a .500 record in his starts. It wasn’t elite, but it wasn’t a dumpster fire.

Now, let’s look at Penix through three games this season. He’s completed under 60% of his passes for a measly 506 yards, with one single touchdown and two interceptions. If you project that over 14 games, you get a stat line that would make even the most optimistic fan wince: about 2,300 yards, five touchdowns, and nine interceptions. By what mathematical wizardry is that not even close to Cousins’ performance last year? It’s demonstrably worse. Far worse.

Is Raheem Morris Out of His Depth?

This isn’t just a one-off gaffe. It speaks to a larger pattern for a coach whose career record sits at a less-than-stellar 30-48. Great coaches protect their players. All of them. They find ways to spin negatives into positives. They control the narrative. They don’t create locker room divisions with a single, ill-conceived soundbite.

 The whole operation looks disjointed. But instead of taking responsibility or speaking about the offense as a collective unit, Raheem Morris chose to single out Cousins as the benchmark for failure—a benchmark his current starter isn’t even meeting.

It’s one thing to have faith in your guy. It’s another to live in a fantasy world where you publicly denigrate a respected veteran to prop up a struggling youngster, all while ignoring the statistical reality staring you in the face. Maybe Raheem Morris should spend less time crafting bizarre defenses and more time figuring out why his offense didn’t score a single point against the Carolina Panthers.