Who Actually Coaches Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr.?

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. made national headlines this week after his comments about having a mentor or if he had outside the Falcons' structure, were taken out of context.

"But as far as physically the on the field stuff, it's nobody that I'll talk to as far as another quarterback or anything like that. I do have people reach out to me. I do have quarterback coaches back at home that reach out to me as well, tell me, hey, like you need to clean this up, clean that up," Penix said this week.

Those comments were spun into Penix isn't getting any coaching with the Atlanta Falcons, and it was misleading at best, dishonest at worst.

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Now, we can have a very serious conversation on whether or not the coaching Penix is getting with the Atlanta Falcons is good enough, but let's at least be honest about it. There are plenty of things to be critical of the Falcons throughout the years without having to invent problems.

That Penix has struggled this season isn't a hot take. His QBR is 19th, and his passer rating is 25th in the NFL. Quarterback play is a collective of play calling, protection, receivers, and the quarterback himself. Any one of those failures could lead to poor quarterback play. When multiple are failing at once, there's a problem.

So Who Is Coaching Michael Penix Jr.?

Penix has a lightning bolt of a left arm. It was his meal ticket into the top 10 of the 2024 NFL Draft. However, when an athlete is so gifted, sometimes the fundamentals can be lacking. Penix's footwork fails him at times with bodies around him, and it begs the question: Who is working with him from the Falcons day-to-day to improve?

“Yeah, it's all of us," offensive coordinator and former Oklahoma State quarterback Zac Robinson answered. "Obviously, D.J. [QB coach D.J. Williams] leading the charge in there. Ken Zampese is in the quarterback room as well. I'm obviously out there as well. So, it's all of us. We're all communicating every day.

"We're a pretty close-knit group in that quarterback room. Got to make sure that the habits that you create in practice translate to the game. Definitely can clean up some of those things from a fundamental and technique standpoint. But yeah, it's all of us collectively. Mike giving us his feedback on things. Kind of all working together.”

Robinson returns to the notion that better protection from his offensive line will go a long way towards improving the perceived flaws in Penix's game.

"We'll work any of the things that have shown up on tape that we've had difficulty picking up from a line-game standpoint, making sure we're all clean with some of the pass ops up front. But we look at all of it. We look at route detail. We look at what's going on up front. All those things that are playing a factor into it.”

General manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris went all-in on Michael Penix Jr. when they took him with the No. 8 pick in the 2024 draft weeks after signing Kirk Cousins to a $100 million guaranteed contract. No one has more incentive to see him develop than Fontenot and Morris.

He's being coached. That nonsense of a narrative should be put to bed.

Is he being coached and developed properly? Those are questions we'll have to wait for answers on.