The Atlanta Falcons certainly don't have the best quarterbacks in the league, but they're far from the worst. When Nick Shook from NFL.com ranked all 63 starting quarterbacks from the 2025 NFL season, I was genuinely shook by his findings.
Of course, the list begins with the MVP winner, then various 2025 standouts. Once you begin to scroll down, you'll see various names catch your eye before either Falcons quarterback is listed. A couple of oddities are Milk Willis and Bryce Young, who threw a dozen interceptions and fumbled seven times.
Kirk Cousins is the first Falcon listed at No. 28, right behind Jacoby Brissett and Cam Ward, and right before Marcus Mariota and Kyler Murray. The biggest sham of this list that Cousins is four spots behind Malik Willis. He struggled through 10 games in 2025, but played well enough to be respected.
Michael Penix and Kirk Cousins were brutally disrespected in these rankings
The 14-year vet threw for 1,721 yards, 10 touchdowns, and five interceptions over 10 games. Willis, on the other hand, played one good game all season long. The fact that Willis can slide so high up, especially past Cousins, is insane to me. At the very least, Cousins deserves to be one spot higher.
He came on in the wake of Jordan Love's injury in Week 16 and completed nine of eleven passes for 121 yards and a touchdown. His lone start was elite, but those are the two games he played in. He completed three passes total in the other two games he played in. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff.
Another oddity is how low Penix is. The 25-year-old is a whole tier lower than Cousins at No. 34. The most disrespectful part of Penix's listing is he right behind J.J. McCarthy, and only one spot in front of Geno Smith, who was quarterbacking the most pathetic team in the NFL.
For context, Penix threw for 1,982 yards, nine touchdowns, and owned a 60.1% completion rate and threw just three interceptions. Penix is a mix of safe inaccuracy. He hasn't thrown a ton of interceptions in the NFL, but he certainly doesn't put it right on the money every time.
At No. 33 is McCarthy, which is wild to me. McCarthy threw for 1,632 passing yards, 57.6 comp pct, 11 touchdowns, a dozen interceptions and fumbled six times over 10 starts. Every single passing category Penix fared better, and he had significantly less turnovers.
It's insane that Smith, who led the league with 17 interceptions, is one spot behind Penix. Some other funny notes about this list: Phillip Rivers is in the same tier as Penix and Jayden Daniels. In fact, he's actually listed above Daniels. Oh, and he's listed well above the "Pro Bowl" QB Shedeur Sanders.
Back to the Falcons, these rankings are downright disrespectful. There's a genuine argument Penix should be placed above Cousins, but both quarterbacks have disappointments in front of them.