BREAKING NEWS: Michael Penix Jr. to start on Thursday vs Green Bay Packers | Atlanta Falcons Podcast

Duration: 7:38 1362 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

Michael Penix Jr. is set to make his highly anticipated return as the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons this Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. This development ends months of speculation following his ACL injury in November, which forced him to undergo surgery and miss the entire season. The team has been eager to see Penix lead an offense that has struggled significantly with turnovers and moving the ball downfield, particularly noting their inability to score inside the red zone since the start of the season. While Penix's return brings hope for revitalizing the passing game, expectations are being managed realistically given his status as a player returning from his third ACL surgery. Offensive Coordinator Tommy Reese has expressed confidence in Penix's readiness, citing extensive work done over the past six months to minimize any "rust." Penix has been fully participating in physical drills, including 11-on-11 situations, and has shown sharp movement within the pocket without significant limitations. Although he initially hoped to be ready for Week One, he waited until now to ensure he was at 100% strength so he could give the team his best effort. Reese noted that Penix looks good physically and is well-prepared to execute the new scheme, which emphasizes running the ball and play-action passes from under center to create a balanced offensive attack. The primary strategic goal for this matchup is to utilize Penix's big arm to open up the running game for Bijan Robinson. By threatening defenses with deep passes to receivers like Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Ja'Marr Chase, the Falcons aim to prevent Robinson from being contained solely by his own efforts. Even though Robinson has been exceptional in prime-time games over the last two years, he still needs help from his teammates to succeed. Penix's ability to push the ball downfield will be crucial in creating the space needed for Robinson to make explosive runs and shine as expected in a high-stakes game. Ultimately, while there is excitement surrounding Penix's debut, the podcast host advises fans to temper their expectations regarding immediate dominance or franchise-saving performances. It is natural for a player returning from such a significant injury to be knocking some rust off rather than setting the world on fire immediately. The focus remains on seeing what Penix can provide in his first start and how he integrates into the offense over time. As the team heads to Green Bay, the narrative will shift from anticipation of his return to evaluating his actual performance on the field, with further details expected during the pregame update where the host will be on the sideline discussing Penix's mindset before kickoff.

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What's up, [music] Falcons fans? Tory Mhaney here, and I am coming to you right now with some news that I know you have been waiting on. Michael Pennix Jr. is expected to start for the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers up at Lambeau Field. I know this is something for not just the last few weeks, but the past few months, honestly, since Michael Penn injured his ACL in November of last year and had to have the subsequent surgery that ended his season, this has been a topic of conversation. When would we see when would the Falcons see Michael Penn Jr. play in a game once more? Well, we have that answer and it will be this Thursday. Now, I'm I'm coming to you kind of with a load of information, a lot of thoughts in my head. So, if I'm super scatterrained, I apologize for that. But one of the main things that I wanted to share with you just in terms of the reporting that we've done over the last week is really stemming from Michael Penn's preparedness to go out there in a prime time game and lead this offense that, let's be honest, has struggled mightily in the turnover margin. struggled to move the ball offensively, struggled to get anything going by way of the pass game in general. As has been detailed across the league over the last couple days, the Falcons are the only offense that have yet to break into the red zone and run a play from from the red area since the season started two weeks ago. that is a a symptom of an otherwise not productive offense, which this offense can look at it, it hasn't been. So, at this point in time, you're looking to see what Michael Pennix can provide for this offense as he makes his first start on Thursday. I'm not going to sit here and say that Michael Penn is going to be the savior of the franchise and is going to go out there and set the world on fire. I think that would be putting too lofty expectations on a guy who is going to be knocking some rust off. I I think that's only normal. It's only natural for somebody who's coming off of an injury of this capacity, let alone his third ACL injury since he started his collegiate career many years ago. But I actually think that there's something that Tommy Reese, the Falcons offensive coordinator, said just last week about how he actually doesn't think that there's going to be too much of a a lot of rust coming off in terms of the timing of of what Michael Pennix is doing with the receivers. He's been working a lot with the ones, obviously taking a lot of reps with the ones all last week. They've been very fortunate. Tommy Reese said that they've been able to do a lot with him over the last six months as he's ramped back up. So, they feel pretty confident about sending him out there on Thursday night. Obviously, he must feel confident, too. We've talked to Michael Penn a lot. He's been very open and honest about his recovery and hoping that he could be ready for week one, but then being honest when week one came that he wasn't ready yet. He wanted to be stronger. He He wanted to feel like he was 100% so he could give this team 100%. Well, that time has finally arrived. Looking at what Michael Pennix has been doing over the last couple of weeks, we can glean a little bit of information from Tommy Ree and what he talked about last week where he feels like Michael Penn looks good. He's been really good for the last few weeks. Tommy Ree said that he didn't know Michael Penn injury. he just knew him from afar and and kind of what you see in terms of highlight reels of of that big arm that he has. But he said over the last few weeks he's looked sharp. He's moved well. They've had him moving around the pocket and he looks good when he does moving in and out of the pocket. Obviously, the Falcons are doing more under center work here with this new scheme and and what Tommy Reece and Kevin Stansky want to do and wanting to run the ball, play action under center stuff. That's been a big part of Michael Penn's own maturation while also returning to the field of play and wanting to get that rehab in and wanting to get back to 100%. Something that Tommy Reese talked a little bit about last week was that they feel like Michael Pennix has done everything that they've asked him to do, whether it be in the classroom, in walkthroughs, when he was able to, the physical nature of working through 11on 111s when he finally got that all clear in the third week of the preseason. over the last few weeks, he said that he's had hardly any limitations physically and they've been really able to work with him on what they are wanting to do big picture from the offense. Again, this is not to say that Michael Pennix was going to come out and be the NFL offensive player of the week after a Thursday night performance. But what we know of Michael Penn is that he's a gamer. He has a big arm. he's not afraid to push the ball downfield and and go for those explosives and something that the Falcons really needed after the last two weeks is having a presence in the pass game that balances what they are trying to do in the run game because as we've seen over the last two weeks when you're not threatening a defense in the pass game it really takes away from what Bjon Robinson could do and and get this Bon Robinson can do a lot but he but this is still football is still the the greatest team game in the world Bjon Robinson may be superhuman, but he's still human and he needs help from his friends. Not to quote the song, but that's what we're doing. So, I say all that to say that getting the ball into the hands of Drake London, getting the ball into the hands of Kyle Pitch, Jan Dodson, pushing the ball downfield in order to open up this run game so that it allows Bjon Robinson to do exactly what he is known best to do, which is make people miss and go on those explosive runs and and do what he's done in prime time games over the last two years, which is shine. So, for all of that, that's what you can expect or what I'm even expecting going up to Green Bay this Thursday night. It's it's going to be very interesting to see. And I I I implore you to to taper your own expectations. Obviously, there's an excitement right now that Michael Pennix is going to be coming back. But again, taper expectations. This is someone who's coming off of his third ACL surgery. We always knew we would see Michael Penn at some point. The time is now nigh. The time is now that we will see Michael Pennix. And what happens from there, it's anybody's guess, but that's where we are right now. So, thank you so much for listening. I hope that I gave you at least a little bit of some some notes to talk to your friends about as you're talk as we're leading up to this prime time matchup. Make sure before the game to check out our Atlanta Falcons pre pregame update. I will be on the sideline with Dave Archer as we are going to go through everything Michael Pennix related and what could be going through his mind as he suits up to play and start on Thursday night. So again, thank you guys so much and we will talk to you very soon.