It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the Atlanta Falcons decided to clean house. Raheem Morris and Terry Fontenot did a solid job building out this Falcons' roster, but their inability to solve the team's QB woes threatened to waste their competitive window, which is why they got fired.
This reasoning is something that every Falcons fan should be well aware of by now. Even Fontenot and Morris are aware of how badly they butchered the quarterback room, but while addressing the media this afternoon, Arthur Blank tried (and failed) to affirm it had nothing to do with his choice.
Blank said how the drafting of Penix and signing of Cousins in 2024 worked out did not play into his decision to fire Raheem Morris. "It had nothing to do with the decisions we collaboratively made." #Falcons
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) January 8, 2026
The fact that the Dirty Birds signed a QB to a $180 million contract and drafted another inside the top 10 of the NFL Draft that same offseason is bad enough, but knowing that neither of them emerged into the long-term answer under center is even worse, so Blank has to be lying to save face this time.
Even Arthur Blank knows he's in denial over Falcons' QB mismanagement
As he's gotten older, the 83-year-old has started to become blind to the problems within the front office, and this is no different. Usually, he is relatively hands-off in terms of organizational decisions, but we all remember the video of Fontenot having to explain the Michael Penix Jr. selection to Blank.
He was never on board to the way they went about the decision from the beginning, so pretending he trusted that choice to pan out is just plain wrong. Penix has yet to establish himself as the franchise QB, and the expectation is that Kirk Cousins will be cut this offseason after restructuring his contract.
This team went 8-9 for the second consecutive season in large part due to inconsistent quarterback play, and it took Penix to suffer a season-ending ACL injury to get the offense back on track. They went 5-2 after the Washington product went down, and he was out-played by his veteran backup.
Honestly it wasn't the decision the previous regime made, it was the way Morris went about it. The 49-year-old had no business benching Cousins for Penix the end of the 2024 season, and the 25-year-old proved this season that he still needed time to sit and learn before becoming the starter.
Blank can publicly admit the quarterback situation didn't play a factor in his decision-making, but Falcons fans should know better than to take his words at face value since QB play has haunted this team since they traded Matt Ryan almost five years ago.
There's a reason quarterback is regarded as the most important position in sports, because this Atlanta roster is a QB away from contending.