We are now almost two weeks post-NFL Draft, and the Atlanta Falcons aren't allowed to live down their selection of Michael Penix Jr. just yet.
It could be quite a while, actually, until the tides start to change.
For two weeks now, Falcons fans have continued to read and hear plenty of criticism for taking Penix at no. 8 overall. But, finally, someone has come to their rescue.
In a recent article put together by several experts and analysts at ESPN, Jordan Reid played the role of lone wolf, calling the Penix pick his favorite of the entire draft.
"I understand everything about the Falcons' commitment to quarterback Kirk Cousins, the salary cap implications and the potential for strife within the locker room. But if the Falcons are right about Penix, none of that will matter in the long run. If a team believes it has identified a potential transformational player at the most important position in sports, well, it has to go get him. It's that simple," Reid wrote.
The Falcons will continue to be picked apart for selecting Michael Penix Jr.
It was especially refreshing, and also kind of funny, to learn that Reid liked the Penix pick, because four of his peers called the pick the most "head-scratching" move of the draft in the exact same article.
Specifically, Stephania Bell called out the Falcons for the Penix pick, just a bit further down in that same text:
"It is hard to justify spending this first-round draft capital when the Falcons had declared their nine-figure love for Kirk Cousins weeks earlier. The team did fulfill defensive needs -- its most glaring hole entering the draft -- in later rounds, but will the strategy of having two QBs capable of starting create less tension in the locker room ... or more?"
Then, another NFL analyst, Matt Bowen, ripped the Penix pick right after Bell put in her two cents:
"The Falcons built depth behind Cousins with this selection and set up their QB room for the future. However, I saw this as an opportunity for the Falcons to add an impactful defensive player to new coach Raheem Morris' system, with outside linebacker Dallas Turner and defensive tackle Byron Murphy II still on the board at the time of Atlanta's pick."
Both Bell and Bowen make excellent points, but Reid is also right. In a few years, if Penix is everything Atlanta thinks he can be, then none of this is going to matter.
After all, quarterback is the most important position in the game, today. If you get that position right, you have the majority of the battle already won, and that's something a few teams have hardly done in roughly a century in this league.