I have never seen a young quarterback rally as little support as Michael Penix Jr. has this offseason. It's started with countless media narratives and it's snowballed into the point that Kevin Stefanski won't even commit to him as the Atlanta Falcons' starting quarterback, which is a major backtrack.
Unfortunately, the narratives are still swirling, and there's a new culprit behind them this time: ESPN analyst Louis Riddick. During Tuesday's episode of NFL Live, Riddick made it clear that he doesn't think Penix is Atlanta's long-term franchise QB, which is a popular sentiment, but his statement soon goes off the rails.
Riddick doubled down on his comments by affirming that he expects the Falcons to make a "big move" at QB this offseason, which is a pretty broad scope. However, one of the names he mentioned is Malik Willis, who has been perhaps the most talked-about player during the offseason QB carousel.
Honestly, all of these discussions are starting to get stale. Stefanski was non-committal since it's way too early to name a starting QB (and we don't know much about where the 25-year-old is at in his rehab), but watching the media spin this into an anti-Penix narrative is starting to get repetitive.
Louis Riddick thinks that the Falcons are bracing to move on from Michael Penix Jr. for Malik Willis
I know that Penix has been far from stellar to kick his NFL career, but the nationwide infatuation with Willis is starting to make no sense to me. He has less than 100 pass attempts across the last two seasons, yet he's receiving so much hype that he could draw $35 million in AAV on a new contract.
Willis has made six starts in his NFL career. Six. That is almost $6 million per start if those reports are true. All of this hype is coming from two good starts down the stretch in Jordan Love's stead. I can admit that he looked significantly more poised in Green Bay, but the sample size was too small to take at face value.
Do I think Willis deserves a shot as a starter and a respectable contract? Yes. Do I think that Willis deserves to be paid more on an annual basis than Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield? Absolutely not. This screams Matt Flynn to me, so if the Falcons wanted to break the bank on a QB, they would have been better off just keeping Kirk Cousins.
If the Dirty Birds were to add a veteran QB to push Penix for the starting job, someone like Tua Tagovailoa or Joe Flacco would make more sense. I know that QB career revivals are all the rage nowadays, but Willis crashing and burning would only make the quarterback dilemma even worse.
A big draw about the new regime was seeing them work with Penix and tap into the potential we have seen. I'm sure Riddick is coming from a good place with this narrative that any QB could thrive in Atlanta's situation, but since Matt Ryan has his back, Penix still deserves a real shot in a real offense once he returns, especially over someone like Willis.