The Atlanta Falcons’ eighth overall pick Michael Penix Jr. makes his much awaited first start in the NFL on Sunday at home versus the New York Giants, and while all signs point to the Falcons’ offense relying heavily on their running game, like Michael Penix Jr. making his first NFL start, this being a must win game for the Falcons, and the Giants having the second worst rush defense in the NFL, earlier today former Atlanta Falcons quarterback and now analyst for the Atlanta Falcons Radio Network Dave Archer told The Morning Shift why he thinks the Falcons rookie signal caller will throw the ball “at least 25 times” on Sunday versus the Giants.
“I think they’re gonna turn him loose. I think Penix will throw it at least 25 times in the game. I think the strength of this football team certainly the way the offensive line is playing and the two running backs the way their pounding it, but you’ve got guys on the perimeter, you're gonna have to go make plays on the perimeter” Archer said.
Dave doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with using a heavy run game at the start of the game to ease the rookie into his first NFL start and get him “feeling right”, but Arch also believes that at some point on Sunday the Falcons have to let Michael Penix Jr. throw the football as well.
“You can go in thinking early on that okay let’s get him going, let’s get him feeling right, and all those kind of things, but at some point you’ve got to trust what he is, and that means he can throw the ball down the field.” Arch said.
Earlier this week Falcons Offensive Coordinator Zach Robinson was asked if the full playbook would be open for Penix Jr. and he said “Sure, yeah, absolutely, you know we felt great with Kirk as well you know just obviously Mike’s got some different skillsets that you can activate as well, but you know whatever he’s done at Washington and what we’ve seen out on the practice field how it fits within our offense we’ll definitely activate that this week”.
25 throws may seem like a lot of attempts in his first start, but this is a guy who played in 48 games in college and has a learned a lot behind Kirk Cousins up to this point, so if the former quarterback thinks he can handle it don’t be surprised to see the Falcons’ rookie quarterback back get the chance to cut it loose on Sunday.
