2. Barring injury Kirk Cousins stays benched
The worst possible mistake the Falcons could make is benching Penix no matter what the results are. Barring the quarterback throwing 5-6 interceptions the results cannot be any worse than what you've been getting from Kirk Cousins. Atlanta's recent history of benching quarterbacks hasn't worked in their favor and it could ruin a promising prospect here.
It doesn't matter what Penix looks like over the next three games you cannot turn back to the veteran quarterback. Benching Penix before the end of the season would be the end of his confidence with a full offseason to think about the failures and how the season ended. While this seems like common sense this is the same Atlanta team that has refused to start Penix as Cousins imploded their season.
Even head coach Raheem Morris was defending the quarterback just a week ago. This is the same GM and owner who willingly signed up for two years of Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder. Their quarterback evaluation should be doubted. With this in mind, no matter what Penix does in his first start of the season there is no looking back until the end of the season.