On Wednesday, Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. said some thing that made a bit of a stir. It seemed overblown at the time, which kept it from making the cut for a blurb in this specific piece of digital real estate.
Falcons coach Raheem Morris agreed, and his Friday comments on the topic were sufficiently strong to put the issue on the radar screen.
Here’s the background. During his midweek press conference, Penix was asked where he goes for advice. He mentioned his fiancé and his “quarterback coaches back at home” who give him tips on things that need to be cleaned up. Some reacted to the remarks as an indictment of the Atlanta coaching staff, since he didn’t say he turns to any of them for help.
That’s a stretch. He works directly with them. They work directly with him. Without something more explicit and specific, the clip doesn’t go nearly far enough to suggest he’s getting no help from the people who are paid to give it to him.
Via Marc Raimondi of ESPN.com, Morris took issue with the situation on Friday. Morris called the response to Penix’s comments “a joke,” and that it “lets you down” regarding the manner in which people take snippets and stretch them into something more than what they are.
“Stop looking for stuff on a young man,” Morris said, via Raimondi. “You don’t need this stuff on him. It is what it is. But all of those things people do, it doesn’t matter to affect this building.
“I just feel bad for the kid. I don’t want the kid having to deal with stuff that doesn’t matter or stuff that’s not real. . . . Let his problems be his problems, like third downs. Let’s fix those. Don’t make up [a thing] that doesn’t exist.”
Penix, per Raimondi, was asked on Friday whether he wanted to clarify the comments. Penix declined, saying that everyone within the organization knows the truth.
Morris added that he and Penix made light of the situation this week, adding that Penix’s internal resources include, beyond Morris himself, offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, quarterbacks coach D.J. Williams, passing game coordinator/receivers coach T.J. Yates, and senior offensive assistant Ken Zampese. Morris also said that veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins, the team’s No. 2 quarterback, helps Penix.
For Williams’s part, he said on Friday that he talks to Penix and the team’s other quarterbacks more than he talks to his own children, and that Williams hasn’t even mentioned the supposedly controversial remarks to Penix.
Regardless, the Falcons have been wildly inconsistent this year. For every impressive performance (prime-time wins over the Vikings and Bills), there’s at least one clunker (blowout losses to the Panthers and Dolphins).
It all adds up to six losses in nine games. An “L” at home to Carolina on Sunday will drop the Falcons to 3-7. That seventh loss (and fourth in a row) could become the de facto death knell for the Falcons’ flickering postseason hopes.
