This Cassidy.
Say something, Bobby, say something, Bobby. Welcome to football today. I am your host, Bobby Skinner here with my co host Justin Pennick. And guess what the Atlanta Falcons Cousins out Pennix then Justin, Uh, we're want to hit this from a lot of angles.
How are we doing?
I'm good, Bobby Skinner. To get all the questions out of the way. Michael Pennix and I were not related. I asked him down at the Senior Bowl down a mobile inter We interviewed him a couple of months ago. We may talk about that a little bit. Down at the Senior Ball. I asked him, do you think we're related? He said, I don't know, maybe, but I'm rolling it out. We're not related.
How are you Have you done the twenty three in me?
I have didn't?
They came back negative.
Yeah, So the Falcons have bench Kirk Cousins. They absolute had to do this right. Justin, I mean, Cousins is just done. You know, maybe after another extra year rehab he can get back to being better than what he is right now. I don't think this was like Matt Ryan level of bad with the Colts or even at the end with the Falcons or like Peyton at the end with the Broncos. But Peyton obviously has the superior mind where he was able to get by in those playoffs.
I don't think it's that level justin. But it was just like he he can't push off, right, he can't throw the ball, you know, the way that he wants to write, not attacking down the field. They can only run play action out of pistol. Like just couldn't do all the things that kirk Cousins had done well in his career. Like if this was this isn't just like, oh, Kirk Cousins, this is who he is, Like, this is
not who Kirk Cousins has been. You know, if they got Minnesota version of him last year, you know, like health wise, then they're definitely not making this move. But kirk Cousins forced their hand one touchdown, nine interceptions in the last five games and one in four with you know, in the win was an escaping win against the Raiders.
They basically probably threw away the division already. You know, they're they're one game back of the Bucks now they have the tiebreaker for the Bucks, but the Falcons have the Giants, Commanders Panthers, and the Bucks have Cowboys, Panthers, Saint, so the Bucks do have an easier schedule going ahead. Now all they need is the Bucks to lose one game and the Falcons to win three winnable games. But it may be too little, too late, but this just had to happen.
For the Falcons at this point.
Yeah, yeah, I guess we'll touch on first why the Falcons needed to make this change, and then I even want to ask you then we'll move to full on. Michael Pennix, does this change the you know how you feel about the draft, pick et cetera, et cetera. But why the Falcons needed to make this change? Man? You talked about them operating out of the pistol thirty six and a half percent of their snaps this year. That's the fourth highest in the NFL that they've been operating
out of the pistol. And we're going to talk maybe a good amount, a good amount about the Big Bay branch of offense. That's what Zach Robinson is a kind of off that Sean McVay branch. I am sure that this offense wants to operate under center and utilize play action and we see what they're doing with these outside zone runs with Jon Robinson. You can't do that with
Kirk Cousins's inability to move this year. And I think that's probably something that I don't know when Cousins kind of fully came back it started to practice, but I'm sure that's something that maybe the team was shocked by that, Oh shit, we're not going to be able to run the offense that maybe we fully want this year because we have a quarterback that legitimately can't move. Cousins not being able to move and take play action rollouts, it's
taken play action rollouts completely out of the offense. Forget even the outside zone stuff. Only eleven outs like play action rollouts this year for Kirk Cousins. That's the lowest the team has had since twenty seventeen Big Ben, who also couldn't move. You know, Kirk Cousins has also been like demand in play action, but it's just been totally
taken away from this offense because he can't move. And he even saw against the Raider game and our producer Connor was talking to him on the way in today. He's a Raider fan, was watching that game and Kirk Cousins on these outside zones can't even get the ball out there to these running backs when they're operating out of pistol, so it's even tough for him to get the ball out there. So there's a lot of other reasons why, you know, Kirk Cousins not being able to
use his legs of driving the ball in. He is the fourth highest tight window throw rate this year. I think a lot of that has to do with the the lack of quote unquote arm strength, because he can't put his legs into a lot of these throws, and because the offense can be so predictable, predictable. So yeah, that's they they needed to make this move. And a lot of it is just because Kirk Cousins literally literally cannot move.
Yeah, and again it's not because of who Kirk Cousins was in Washington or Minnesota. It's coming off of the achilles injury. He's just he's not the same. It's showed up earlier in the year and they found and again they still like have yard they still have a lot of yards, even you know, not the Falcons game, We're only at one hundred or so yards.
But like even.
In these higher interception games, Kirk has thrown for yards. His mind is still there, and they have the ween yards per game, and I think they have offensive the offensive play calling is is better, but it just hasn't gotten the shine because of Kirk Cousins' limitations. Like all that stuff is there. It's just I just worried that
it is too. I mean, they went one in four and I understand making this decisions not easy because the investment they made into him, which we're going to talk about that when we talk about the decisions with you know, bringing in Kirk and Penix and all this, but you know, one in one touchdown, nine interceptions, and you go and watch the interceptions because interceptions can be a lying stat at times. You remember like the year Dak led to
the league in interceptions a couple of years ago. It's like, okay, but he's never he's never done that before, and like five of these were tipped up and it was a low year for interceptions total in the NFL. With this, every almost every single interception was just god awful, ugly right where it's just he's popping a football up, he's throwing into triple coverage. It was just really bad stuff and you didn't have the touchdowns to go with it with the only one. I think he limited the run game,
obviously limited the pass game. You just had to this justin Yeah.
Yeah, like guys like Drake London are coming out of their brakes before Kirk is even set and is fully dropped before he's done with his dropback.
You know.
So again, I don't I want to kind of get to the Michael Pennock's part of this. Let's do it now now, the.
Let's talk about the draft decision. How about that?
Yeah, And it's not necessarily that Michael Pennox, I feel like, is going to add this huge dynamic as a quarterback. But what he's simply going to do is he's going to open up the playbook more because he he is
a capable moving quarterback. And even though he's not a mobile quarterback, he's a capable moving quarterback that I think some of the core identity things that that Atlanta Falcons offense wants to do, they're going to be able to do it a lot more now, and I think they're going to maybe be able to do it better because it's not Kirk Cousins.
Yeah, we're not going into it now now you know, now we're not you know, run in and gun in and we're making throws on the run and screen like that's not going to be added with Michael Penicks game, which we'll talk about. What you It's just like there were so many limitations because of the Kirk, the Kirk injury, and then we know Penix can make you know, uh, you know, basically almost almost all the throws. You know,
he's got this strong arm. So do you want to talk about Michael Pennis in general as a player before we talk about the the decision to sign Kirk and then draft Michael Pennock for the Falcons.
Well, let's I want to. I want to let's start at the beginning. Let's not quit and Tarantino this and work our way backwards. Let's I want to hear your thoughts because it was on this show and you had a you had a clip that did well after the draft about the decision to draft Michael Pennix. Now, obviously none none of us really knew, and obviously the Falcons didn't freaking know just how physically limited Kirk Cousins would
be this year. So now that we know, and now that we agree with this decision with three games left for them to bring up Michael Penix into the mix, does that change the way that you view the draft pick, Bobby.
No, because we we we talked about it in that draft. Body even talk about it on the off season, especially with some guests. Is that I think, no matter what way you paint this, the Falcons messed up somewhere along the line, and not just a little mess up, but had a major mess up because Kirk Cousins wasn't on their team. They signed Kirk Cousins, they invested in this. There's been this like media spin won by the you know, the bought for you know insiders like man, they are prepared.
And then you also have the people who are just so over infatuated, like, oh, just quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, you know, just take take shots.
Just draft for quarterback every year type of people. Those people like it.
You gave Kirk Cousins a four year, one hundred eighty million dollar contract. You weren't forced to do that. You also weren't forced to pay You didn't have to do that to have Michael Pennock sit for a little bit. If that was your plan right right, Like you could have signed a different quarterback and also let Michael Pennick
sit for a little bit. You know, Russell Wilson was out there, you could have made the trade for Justin Again, not guys that are that have you know have you know that are going to be killing, you know, changing the world. But at the same time, neither is Kirk Cousins. You're benching him, you know. But the difference is those guys aren't gonna cost you four hundred four years, one hundred and eighty million dollars. Now, obviously it's not all guaranteed, but it's basically a two year deal.
They have a.
Sixty five if they cut him, which I don't know if anyone's gonna trade for him. They have a sixty five million dollar dead cap next year, sixty five million dollar dead cap like that, That to me is they screwed up terribly on this quarterback contract, terribly. Okay, So that's why the whole Michael Pennick's like, oh, well, it may work out in the end, Like, yeah, Michael Pennix ends up good, It may work out in the end. Guess what would have worked out in the end, regardless Michael Penix.
Then you didn't.
Again, you were not sitting on a team that Kirk Cousin's been their QB for a long time, and they went out and signed him as a win now move and he can't win now for them.
Yeah, I think the decision to draft Michael Pennix looks better, but what looks exponentially worse is signing Kirk Cousins. Where now Kirk Cousins is going to go down in NFL history as the most expensive bridge quarterback ever. Like that, that's what this is. I don't want net now seeing what Kirk Cousins says, and this doesn't. I still think this is very bad process by the Atlanta Falcons.
It is they should have just signed some use that money elsewhere, signed a bridge saying that actual bridge quarterback, and drafted Michael Pennix. Right, So again you have everyone spending it like, ah, Falcons don't look so crazy after all. It's like, yes they do. They just fucking spent They're gonna They're gonna spend ninety million dollars on a guy who started fourteen games for.
Them, And now my opinion's flipped. Whereas their draft day, I'm like well, why are you drafting Michael Pennocks when you sign Kirk Cousins. Now my opinion's flipped where it's like, well, why did you sign why did you sign Kirk Cousins? And you know what mix it even worse, Bobby, is that this costed them a fifth round pick because they tampered with Kirk Cousins and over a quarter million dollars in fines, which I guarantee they don't fuck and care
about the fines. But you know, this costs it up a fifth round draft pick as well because they tampered with Kirk Cousins, because they really because that's how bad they wanted to sign him.
Yeah, that's how bad they want to sign him. That he signed the minute free agency star to Justin and they didn't bring him in for a workout to see how he was doing physically.
I don't even know if he was cleared.
That's no, he wasn't.
But still, like you could have gotten a idea somewhat of an idea, like they didn't they they couldn't have given him a physical or anything like that. Like I don't know, maybe that's a reach on my point, but just like again, like if you listen to our Draft day, you know, our first round recap pod. It's like it is, it's very stupid. It's very stupid for the Falcons to sign Kirk Cousins and then draft Michael Pennix. Okay, you do one or the other. That was always the argument
against the Falcons. Do one or the other. And you're putting yourself like and at myth Kirk Cousins. You didn't tell Kirk that you were going to even think about doing this. You know he was bothered after the draft
on like, you just created a mess. And you know what, if they drafted a bridge quarterback or signed an actual bridge quarterback, they would have they could have went to Michael Pennix a little earlier and maybe even gotten into the playoffs because they basically had a walk in when the Falcon and the Bucks got all injured and then Kirk Cousins has this stretch and they lose four straight games.
Yeah, and we knew that schedule. I mean, coming into the here, we knew that. You know, we knew this Falcon schedule was just an absolute cake walk this year. Number one, because you're playing in the NFC South, Like Number two, they did just have a kick.
Now the Falcons know they screwed up is because they played them this long into it, right, because like, oh we can't, we can't just bench this investment. Like this was tough for them because they this was not their plan at all. So again, Michael Pennox maybe end up looking great. And we looked back at it and it's like a, well, yeah, we wasted a ton of money and could have brought in this free agent, but and then we got our franchise quarterback. St We're happy. That's
all fine and dandy. But that's never the argument against the Falcons.
Like, right, get it.
I feel like a lot of times whenever a team does get the And again, I don't think Pennix is going to be this. I think he can look good in this offense at times, but I just I don't look at the Falcons. I'm like, man, look at these geniuses thinking ten steps. No, this is not Jordan Love on the Packers, isn't This is not the same situation at all.
No, they cost themselves a lot a lot of money and now they are in a situation where they are praying, they are praying that a team will take on Kirk Cousins' twenty seven and a half million dollar base salary next year, and then I think the Falcons would only need to eat, would only would only need to eat like thirty thirty some million, thirty seven and a half million next year, and then and then luck then if they're lucky, they have no twenty twenty six dead cap and they just
have to eat almost forty million the next year. So I mean, they better hope that a team wants to take that on. And then you're only going to get a six round.
Draft pick back.
You're getting a Day three draft pick back for Kirk Cousins. So, Bobby, before we talk about what Michael Pennix can bring to the table, since I think that's the really beef of this conversation, can I talk to you about something?
Talk to me about something.
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I had a I had a thought that I want to talk about.
So Dan Pastick.
People are listening to the Dan Patrick on the feed in the show I want, I want to get something national justin. Uh, that has to do with us, all right, But let's talk about the the Michael Pennix of of it all. Because at the end of the day, they're they're just making a change of quarterback. So I'll be honest as a So we are New York Giants fans, and so we have the pulse of the team. From the Giants fan point of view, it's like, let's see
who they passed on with Michael Pennix. From my point of view, I'm like, let's see Zach Robinson without the most limited quarterback of all time. But let's talk about Michael Pennix as a player justin. You know, we did a lot of work on him. You know, we you know, did our full quarterback draft previews last year. There's a lot we interviewed him in Mobile, Alabama. He was the best. He looked like the best quarterback down there with bow Nicks.
He can read defenses. He sees the rotations that like defenses use and has good recall to come back to a play and you know he sees something a defense that like got him on something.
You know, he's got.
A strong arm, right, It's not this crazy you know, Josh Allen type arm.
But he has a strong arm.
He's fairly accurate with a clean pocket, and he's aggressive, you know, throw the ball deep twenty one percent of the time. And another thing that can be his good a good thing and a bad thing for him is he's not gonna take sacks. He will get rid of the ball if he whether it's just hey, my internal clalk is up. Let's throw this ball with whatever I got to the best option or throw the ball away.
But that can also harm him, right he throws, especially when there is real pressure and not just like a play is kind of you know, falling apart. He'll throw the ball in harm's way. You know, he had eleven interceptions in fifteen games last year, nine of fifteen games with an interception. And when pressured, he will panic and they act. It's not just like decision making. The accuracy suffers greatly when he's pressured because he doesn't have the career.
Part to his game.
There's just no creation outside the pocket with his legs. That being said, though, I think this is a great fit for somebody from the Sean McVay Tree and Zach Robinson with this running game with these weapons, because despite the fact that Kirk has been limited, you know, Kirk has thrown for thirty five hundred yards this year.
You know, they're six and.
Passing yards, they're twelfth in rushing yards, they're ninth, and yards per play, they're seventh and yards per drive. You know, at one point this year, Darnell Mooney was fourth and receiving in the NFL. Like at like week nine, he was fourth in the NFL and receiving yards. Whenever we did our mid season All Pro I was like, oh my god, Darnell Mooney is up here and Drake London
was right behind him. This is a good spot. It kind of reminds me of like maybe we could see what happened with Jared Goff early with the rams, where it's a little bit telling him where it is running play action. They'll be able to do that more if they face a team that's going to pressure him like crazy and get after him and Discott's coverages the same the way the Michigan did last year in the National Championship. Yeah, it'll be a mess, but I think he's getting into
a pretty nice situation. This is why we love the Falcons. You know this year with the quarterback and having to play the Giants who have almost every starting dB is injured except for like they're probably won their worst starters in Jason Pinnock. The Commanders, who, despite their success this year, lack a lot of talent on defense, and then the Carolina Panthers, the worst passing defense in the NFL. Like this is a nice landing spot for Michael Pennix to start his career.
Yeah. Absolutely, that offensive line is still holding up pretty well in you know, true pass set grades and stuff like that. We know the we know the talent that they have there. I love Drake London for this offense and this quarterback in particular. Drake London I think is up there in terms of contested catch guys that can go up and get it, like with with a George Pickens. Darnold Mooney somehow has like four yards per reception more than Drake London. I hope that changes.
I hope Drake kind of.
Like that dynamic where London's their main guy and Mooney is looking he's gonna get those big plays Like you see that with a lot of teams where they have their number one who's their go to guy and then their number two is the guy who's gonna average fifteen yards per catch.
Yeah yeah, uh you know. And you you talked about Penis limiting sacks in college, which that was very true. I have I have that same note. What I think Penix is going to bring this is again what Cousins did not bring. And this is what makes Penix different of you know, you're not going to see the plays like Lamar and Josh Allen and Mahomes where we're running
around and extending plays like that. But I would say, you know the ceiling and what you want to strive for is Michael Penix can be a guy like maybe like a Joe Burrow where you can extend plays within inside the pocket. I don't think he's going to be doing that outside the pocket and making guys miss and extending plays that way. But that is a guy that can extend plays inside the pocket, and that's gonna have
to be a key for him in the NFL. Can he stay calm, canny, stay cool, Kenny, stay collected in the NFL. In the NFL doing that and even on place where he's holding the ball for longer than two and a half seconds, his pressure to sack rate was still impressively low, where it's like, hey, you look like a guy like Kayleb Williams. Where you hold on to the ball for longer than two and a half seconds. What in the world is gonna happen? What are you
going to do with the ball? That's been a little bit of an issue this year, right where Michael PENNOCKX in college was not an issue for him.
Yeah, his issue is the issues Like there's a guy like Josh Allen who like, oh, is pressure of the sack rate is great and he's creating big plays out of it. With Pennix, it's more of like, all right, we're just gonna throw it or or trying or try and throw it away to avoid that sack, which is good. You don't want to avoid those sacks, but that's where it gets in harm's way.
So listen. I think this is a good.
Spot for any young quarterback or you know, I guess Michael Penox isn't the youngest guy, but any rookie quarterback. The Falcons I think are a very nice offensive structure. I'm really I think Zach Robinson can get a head coaching gig off. These next three games. You know, I'm
someone who loves the Sean McVay tree. You saw hires like Matt Lafleur and Kevin O'Connell get bocked in the moment, and guess where they're at right now, you know, with the top combined five losses on the year or whatever, maybe combined you know, yeah, combined five losses on the year. So I think he can get I think this is a really good offense that was just like man Kirk Cousins can't do anything now Pennick's long term I still you know, I didn't view him as someone that was
worthy of the eighth overall pick. I view him as someone like when shit breaks down, it's it'd be one thing if like, hey, you had some turnovers in those moments, but the accuracy suffers when he's under pressure. You know, go back and watch that Michion game. You don't want to judge a guy off one game, but when they when the when there's pressure and the picture on defense is not clear, that the accuracy suffers. Like even the
preseason game he played was pretty good. You saw some good moments in there, m but you like, see if I can even find my notes I went and watched every furrow from that one when we did on it, and it was like, man, the actor's seat, Like he's missed on like half of these.
These furrows.
If I can find my notes, I actually charted it from that preseason game, but yeah, justin go ahead say something while I find these notes.
Yeah, yeah, and confident that might and Michael Penix's arm. But the one thing that I wanted to add that I'm a little hesitant on is the quick game. You know, I think we're gonna see him sling it. We're gonna see him sling it to Mooney, We're gonna see him, Hey, even get Kyle Pitts involved. We're gonna see him sling
it to Drake London. But the one thing that I have a little bit of a question on is a lot of the quick game at Washington was short passes and screens to the outside, but utilizing the middle of the field and attacking all three levels of the field. That's something that you kind of need to do with the NFL. That's not really what he did at Washington.
I feel like a lot of it was towards the sideline when it's short, and then if it's long again, you're attacking the sideline, you're going deep, you're going vertical in that grub offense. Just think of how many big plays was like, you know Michael Pennis, and this is
good on him. You're the arm talent, you're showing the accuracy, but it was kind of just giving his top three wide receivers, you know, particularly Polk and you know Romo Dunesa, just giving them almost contested catch opportunities.
Which the Falcons have.
Washington was right, and they can replicate that for sure, and they could replicate these quick little passes to you have these weapons, you have guys that are good with yards after the catch, so that is something that you
can replicate. And in terms of Bobby's point about pressure, I think if there's ever a situation or if there's a game or a scheme that the Falcons feel like there's gonna be a team that's going to bring pressure, you know, maybe even the Giants, Like the Giants have a decent pass rush still, you know, heading into the Sunday, I could very much see play action rollouts and getting
him away from the pressure. And that's an answer to how can we get this guy throwing from a clean space, play action rollouts is the way to go, and again they could not do that with Kirk Cousins.
Again, it's very similar to what the Rams did with Jared Goff, who had similar issues where it's like, when it's clean and the reads there, he's got it. When they're pressure, it breaks down. But like you know my preseason like that nine for six teen, one hundred and four yard game, Like here's my note, miss deep shot on third down, but good read of safety, rotation, corner,
a little too wide, deep ball versus cover three. Guy gets beat, nice ball, ball sailed on an out route move linebacker with a pump to hit dig over the middle, miss deep on an alert good stick flat to get third and goal at the one, then miss the fade, missed the checkdown flat behind the guy a third down almost interception on. So like we didn't see him light the world up on fire in those most but even though you do see good stuff. So three years from now, am I gonna be like, man, look at this.
I don't think so.
With Michael Pennix to be one hundred percent real, But I think this is a great opportunity for him in these last three games and I think the Falcons are a pretty good offensive situation as being that's been held back significantly by Kirk Cousins.
Yeah, I mean, if anything, we can, maybe we could even wrap this up by giving a little bit of a preview. What what do we expect this Sunday, Bobby going up against our New York Football Giant and what is a completely decimated defense? And if the Falcons are smart, Michael Pennix isn't throwing the ball more than sixteen seventeen times this game because they should just run the damn ball.
Well, here's the issues.
The Giants have started playing run defense very heavily since they lost Exter Lawrence, and their dbs are like a lot of their touchdowns that the Ravens had were like their corners just playing the run way too heavy and guys getting behind them. So I think they can they I think Penics have a big they They're starting corners were in this most recent game where two guys who weren't on the roster last week, and then Isaiah Simmons who's a linebacker.
That's that's what their starting corner group was.
And then a bad a bad safety duo and Dane Belton and Jason Pinnock or some people call him Justin Pinnock. By the way, go if you're listening to this from the go, check out the first twelve minutes of our podcast talking Giants. That's a little more Nationals. That's shocking, shocking. It's gonna be our most listened to episode ever because of how shocking the Giants are, how dumb they are. But let me say this, if he struggles against this Giants team, Like, you don't want to judge a guy
off his first game, good or bad. Right, We've seen the good where you have the Will Levis's, Daniel Jones, Marcus Mariotas who lighted up in their first game and then look at them now. But I'll be disappointed if Michael Pennicky doesn't light up this Giants offense.
Again.
I don't need him to throw the ball thirty times, but he should be averaging eight to ten yards per attempt. Yeah, you know, hitting passes over the middle and have a touchdown or two.
Yeah, I agree with that.
But I'm excited for I'm just excited for the Falcons offense to be able to run without just extreme limitations at the quarterbacks, which is what they were dealing with. Like it hurt every aspect of that offense. Having Kirk Cousins that quarterback, You know, yes, and it's not because of who Kirk Cousins has been in his career, right, if Kirk Cousins is not injured. Yes, their limitations Kirk kirk Cousins not a great quarterback, sure, but he's a
pretty damn good quarterback. But when you have those physical limitations, it's just hard to do it. And I still think they did pretty damn well considering all of that. Justin do you have anything else on this before we head out?
No, nothing else.
This is a fun episode.
Get the fucking dive deep on a thirty minutes on just one subject. How about that. We appreciate you, guys. We will see you on Friday. Until then, that is football today.