Michael Penix played last week. He didn’t play today.
The Falcons’ decision not to play the rookie quarterback against the Ravens was curious, as curious as their decision to draft him despite signing Kirk Cousins in free agency. Cousins and Penix were two of 40 players not to play for the Falcons, but Penix is not a starter.
That left Taylor Heinicke and John Paddock to split Saturday’s snaps.
Coach Raheem Morris said postgame that the Falcons saw enough from Penix last week when he started against the Dolphins and played 24 snaps. He went 9-of-16 for 104 yards.
“It was all about that. Last week we wanted to get him out there and get a feel for what he was in a live game, which we kind of already knew,” Morris said, via video from Justin Felder of Fox5. “We wanted to see him be able to answer questions, talk about it on the sideline, go out there and execute, make mistakes and know what to do. . . . We saw enough last week of Michael Penix in the live stuff and now we had the chance to mitigate him in practice, you know, we give him a bunch of live stuff in practice that you do everything that you would do in a game other than get hit.”
Morris intimated that Penix will not play in the third and final preseason game either.
“We feel really good where we’re at with Michael. . . . Mike showed us last week enough that we don’t have to play him [again] in the preseason,” Morris said.
Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye, who is competing for the starting job, took 24 snaps on Thursday. The Bears played their rookie quarterback, Caleb Williams, the entire first half Saturday against the Bengals to get him ready for the season opener.
Penix, though, apparently will enter the 2024 season as the team’s No. 2 quarterback with only the snaps he got in the preseason opener.
