Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
(Atlanta, GA) – If Atlanta Falcons fans are mad about their first round selection in this month’s NFL draft, they might want to blame the team’s owner.
While jokes immediately made the rounds on social media that 81-year-old Arthur Blank may want to fire GM Terry Fontenot based on the selection of Michael Penix, a new report suggests it could have been the owner’s idea.
Yahoo! Sports reports that Blank was troubled by last season, which saw the Falcons shift back and forth between Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke at QB.
He would appear to be uninterested in dealing with a pair of journeyman signal callers in the immediate future.
“After watching Fontenot and the previous coaching staff juggle a failed attempt to develop third-round pick (Ridder) into a franchise player, Blank was motivated to overlap a late-career Cousins with a ‘special’ player waiting in the wings. Especially if that player wouldn’t be easy to acquire in future years,” Yahoo’s Charles Robinson explains.
He went on to say Blank’s ideal scenario would be something comparable to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017 – when they drafted Patrick Mahomes as Alex Smith’s backup.
But some have openly questioned the team’s thinking, after inking veteran Kirk Cousins to a four-year $180 million contract. Blank doesn’t appear worried about what could mean for Penix’ development, saying it would be a “great thing” if he sat for “four of five years.”
Fontenot shared his perspective as GM: “When you can add a high-caliber player like that, with his intangibles, those tools, he’s a winner. Very, very excited. You don’t pass up that opportunity,” Fontenot shared after making the team’s first-round pick. “Kirk Cousins is our quarterback, we’re very excited about Kirk. Very excited about this team. Michael Penix is – we’re talking about the future.”
Of course, if Cousins struggles early on – or fails to return to full form after suffering an Achilles injury – the drumbeat online and in calls to sports talk radio will become deafening.
“Put in Penix!” You can hear it now.
