Michelle Penix Jr. made his first NFL start Sunday for the Atlanta Falcons against the New York Giants.
It was a successful debut for the former University of Washington star, who the Giants had the opportunity to draft in April of this year. The Giants selected LSU wide receiver Malik Nabors with the sixth pick. Trailing by two, the Falcons surprised everyone by taking Penix.
They recently signed veteran Kirk Cousins to a huge free agent contract, giving Atlanta a quarterback who wasn’t on many experts’ bingo cards early in the draft.
No one complained then that the Giants beat Penix to get Nabers, and no one is moaning about it now. Nabers had a record year for the Giants, but Penix made it clear on Sunday that the Falcons could have improved things both in the short and long term.
The Giants still need a quarterback. They rolled the dice on Daniel Jones in 2019 and lost. During the six years they were trying to make things work with Jones, they watched a ton of quarterback talent come through the draft while focusing on other needs.
Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy, Bo Nix and Penix all could have been Giants had the team realized sooner that Jones wasn’t the long-term solution. .
That choice can be traced back to the team’s former general manager, Dave Gettleman. The Giants fell in love with Jones and locked themselves in him, choosing among many better options to come.
Gettleman is also the man who selected running back Saquon Barkley with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, bypassing talents like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Sam Darnold.
This season alone, the Giants have been coached by Hurts, Darnold, Jackson, and now Penix.
Gettleman called Berkeley a “gold jacket” man who was “touched by God.” He also compared him to Barry Sanders, which was a perfect assessment since Sanders was a great player on bad teams for most of his career but never won anything.
Some may consider Barkley a surefire pick, but he wasn’t the right fit for the team’s rebuild. As I said before, he’s not the first piece of the puzzle, he’s the last one. That’s why he’s currently on track to become a Hall of Famer with the top-ranked Philadelphia Eagles.
The Giants are likely to have the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, which makes sense. They will pick their own quarterback and ultimately turn around the franchise’s dire situation.
