The Falcons lost their fifth straight game on Sunday, and yet the news got even worse from there.
Michael Penix Jr., who had an impressive first half after struggling mightily the previous week, left the game
with a knee injury. We didn’t have details immediately following the Panthers loss, but now we know that Penix probably aggravated the knee he injured earlier this year. That bone bruise kept him out for a week last time out, but given Penix’s injury history, the fact that the season is unquestionably lost, and the team wants him around for the long haul, my guess is that he will miss multiple weeks this time around.
Penix has 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. This league is often unfair.
If Penix does miss time, 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.
We’ll see if we get a more concrete timeline soon, but an already depressing season just got even more depressing. Fingers crossed Penix is healthy soon.
