Michael Penix Jr. was hoping to play this week, and even optimistic that he might, despite suffering a bone bruise in the course of being beat up by the 49ers pass rush last weekend. Unfortunately for the young
quarterback, it looks like he’s going to miss at least one week of action.
Per ESPN’s Falcons beat writer Marc Raimondi, Cousins is “highly likely” to start against the Dolphins. There’s still room for that to change, but I’m not expecting it to. As Raimondi notes, Cousins’ reps have been ramping up all week, and Penix has been limited throughout. The hope for Penix is that he’ll be good to go in a week with the rest.
Cousins completely collapsed last year owing in large part to injury—something we didn’t really know at the time—but he’s still the most proven insurance policy any team in the NFL has. At the helm of an offense he has a comfort level running, with Bijan Robinson to lean on against a porous Miami Dolphins run defense, Cousins should be in line for a good game that can showcase to other NFL teams that he’s still got it. The Falcons seem increasingly unlikely to move Cousins in 2025, so that’s an audition for 2026 and beyond, but it still very much counts for the veteran quarterback.
Cousins had briefly gotten into the 30-0 blowout loss against the Panthers and completed five of seven passes for 29 yards; a year ago he had 3,500 yards and 18 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, and 13 fumbles in a year that started with promise and ended up looking gruesome. He’s presumably healthier than he was a year ago after recovering from a major Achilles injury, so we’ll hope Cousins can get back to slinging it for this week.
Penix, meanwhile, has 1,400 yards, five touchdowns, three interceptions, and two fumbles in an up-and-down start to the 2025 season. This is the first time in his young NFL career that he’s dealt with an injury significant enough to miss time, and while this shouldn’t be a long-term ailment, we’ll have to see how cautiously the Falcons take it with the man they’ve said repeatedly is and will be their franchise quarterback. The hope is that the rest and healing will get him back out there sooner than later, where he and Zac Robinson can continue to work on making this promising passing attack more consistent.
The most important piece for us, of course, is that the Falcons beat the Dolphins. Cousins should be able to pilot this offense capably enough to hold up their end of the bargain, and a struggling Miami offense will hopefully go the way of so many opponents before them in 2025 and find themselves unable to pass well enough to win the game. We’ll find out soon enough.
