The Falcons lost their fifth straight game on Sunday, and yet the news got even worse from there. After we learned Michael Penix Jr., who had an impressive first half after struggling mightily the previous week, left the game with a knee injury, we were further updated last night that he might miss time. Today, we learned he’s likely to miss the season.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, a second opinion is coming, but the news is not great.
The fact that this is a knee injury is dispiriting news; Penix has two surgically replaced ACLs and had suffered a bone bruise earlier this season that initial reports indicated he had aggravated against Carolina. Any significant knee injuries will obviously knock Penix out for the year and _should_, given his injury history and the increasingly lost nature of the 2025 season, but it’s hard not to worry about the long-term impact of those injuries given his history. I’m pretty bummed out about this one.
Penix had been wildly inconsistent in year two, but was 13/16 for 175 yards against the Panthers with a nine yard scramble and had engineered three scoring drives. Penix was also in the midst of a fifth straight week without an interception, a mark even Matt Ryan only hit a small handful of times in his Falcons career; this felt like a week where he had worked to get better and had, showing the promise as a passer that attracted the Falcons to him in the first place. This league is often unfair.
If Penix is out for the year, it’ll be Kirk Cousins again. Cousins is 32/52 for 250 yards in three games, including one start in relief of Penix, with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He has looked much the same as he did last year past a certain point, just without the crushing lows associated with all his 2024 turnovers, and thus is not a particularly inspiring option to lead an already scuffling passing game. But if the Falcons are going to salvage some dignity from this season, play spoiler a bit in the NFC South with the Buccaneers, and maybe figure out who should stick around from their receiving and tight end corps past this year, they’ll need Cousins to be better than he has been. Perhaps that caliber of player is still in there somewhere, but there’s real doubt about that.
This could not be worse news for a player the Falcons were both counting on and needed the opportunity to evaluate and grow in his role as starting quarterback; the fact that it’s a knee injury is going to set off alarm bells about his long-term future that won’t be quieted until we see him back out there. This is a disaster in a season already defined by its disasters, and all we can do is hope Penix heals completely as quickly as possible.
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