The Falcons are officially in ‘All-Madden’ mode with their quarterback plan

Well, here goes nothing.

Why did the Atlanta Falcons draft quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft last week after signing quarterback Kirk Cousins to a 4-year, $180 million deal in March?

The answer is as easy as it is incredibly complicated. The simple answer is the Falcons clearly think Penix is a franchise-changing quarterback who will benefit from sitting for a couple of seasons behind a pro’s pro like Cousins before taking over as the starter.

Fontenot told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer that it would be “unforgivable” to pass up a player that the franchise felt was a bonafide franchise quarterback to explain why Penix was the pick. The team clearly believes Penix is going to be that great. They did not have to make this pick after signing Cousins, making their conviction all the more staggering.

If this offseason’s ultimate goal was to settle the team’s quarterback room once and for all, to avoid the idea of Arthur Blank watching another Desmond Ridder type throw the ball into the chest of a Carolina Panthers defender in the pouring Charlotte rain, then the goal may well be achieved. Cousins might be the perfect short-term answer, and Penix may well develop into the quarterback of the future.

How you feel about Penix will affect your vision of how this may go, but the Falcons are not exactly hiding any longer how much they believe in this guy to be it. If he’s it, they’ll be able to justify the strange optics of this pick for years. The Cousins deal will be a distant memory for fans and a fascinating case study for how other teams can tweak the Green Bay Packers draft-and-stash quarterback model for a franchise without a Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers already in the building.

If the goal is also winning a Super Bowl, that’s where this gets a little trickier. Scanning all the variables that must click in place for this all to work out as well as it can is admittedly daunting. Consider everything the Falcons are saying with what they’ve done to their quarterback room these last two months.

The financial investment from free agency shows a strong faith that Cousins’ floor as a quality starter will help them establish a winning culture and get people interested in the Falcons again after six-straight losing seasons.

Their selection of Penix also shows an even stronger faith in that player’s potential, in the coaching staff’s ability to develop him in the background while Cousins presumably succeeds on the field in the interim.

The Falcons must not be overly concerned about not having Penix play out the entirety of his rookie contract or his lengthy college injury history at Indiana before he got to Washington. They’re more than comfortable pushing all the hypothetical chips in on Penix the quarterback on the field and Penix the leader in the locker room.

Raheem Morris and Terry Fontenot are wholly risking their jobs to bank on a future where Cousins is one of the great bridge quarterbacks in recent NFL memory and Penix is getting billboards that stand tall over Atlanta freeways and drawing fans in weekly to get a glimpse at the brand-new franchise quarterback.

The Falcons must be comfortable with the opportunity costs that come with not taking advantage of every available resource during the Cousins years to potentially maximize their success, and they’re already willing to burn a couple of years on Penix’s affordable rookie contract to make sure he’s as ready to go as he possibly could be before he starts.

Morris and Fontenot must believe in their ability to totally maximize their roster as is and the draft picks and free agents to come to offset the players they might’ve been able to add by a one-quarterback approach.

They must feel confident in being able to navigate the locker room dynamics of having Cousins and Penix for two or more years together, of keeping the team focused on the right goals and not the potential for Penix to supplant Cousins as their starter sooner than later, of weathering the rough outings Cousins will inevitably have on the field when fans start chanting for Penix in the stands. They must feel that once Penix hits, they’ll be able to still contend for a championship after he signs his lofty possible extension.

The Falcons must be fully bought into the idea that going from Cousins to Penix will be the kind of smooth, successful sailing that will bring wins now and later, reinvigorating a franchise and a fan base that grows restless and gathers dust with each disappointing season in succession of each other. They are betting the world on this plan to work.

Again, the Falcons did not have to be in this position after signing Cousins, but they chose it willingly because not to would’ve have, to Fontenot, been “unforgivable” once they realized that Penix was potentially the one you just couldn’t let get away.

For settling the quarterback room, it’s elementary. If Cousins is good and Penix turns out good, then mission accomplished.

Marrying those two seismic sides of the answer as to why all of this happened is where your expectations for what’s about to come with the Falcons may just have to frustratingly flutter in place until we get tangible results on the field.

The Falcons clearly believe that having a good quarterback is the pinnacle of all in the NFL, which it is. But it’s not the only thing you need, and this regime will have to do everything in its power over however long they’re here to make do with what they have since the quarterback contracts will block a little sunlight.

They’ll also have to make sure that Cousins is happy and comfortable while he’s here, that Penix is happy and comfortable as he develops to inevitably take Cousins’ job on Sundays in Atlanta and that the whole team is fully bought into this plan for its entire duration.

The Falcons desperately needed to figure out the future at quarterback, and it’s not hard to see how everything they’ve done this offseason may solve that problem. Everything else, though, will be just as important to manage in the months and years ahead, and it’s very difficult to project right now exactly how the Falcons will pull all of that off, too.

They really must feel that solving the quarterback room is the way to contend for a Super Bowl, and that everything else will sort itself out in the years to come. But, golly, trying to connect all the dots for what it may take to get there is not for the faint of heart.

Morris has returned to Atlanta and set his difficulty level to “All-Madden” with how to solve the quarterback problem and bring sustained success to the Falcons. If this all works out, he and Fontenot (and Cousins and Penix and everyone else) will be viewed as legends for this team. The optimist in you loves the confidence, the pessimist in you hates the risks.

It’s simple and complex. If they’re right about Penix and they win games with Cousins and Penix, they’ll be fine, and we’ll be happy. If they’re wrong, well, game over.