The Atlanta Falcons did not play most of their starters during the 13-12 Week 2 preseason loss to the Baltimore Ravens, but fans were hoping to see No. 8 overall pick Michael Penix Jr at quarterback. Instead, Taylor Heinicke and John Paddock were the only Falcons quarterbacks who played Saturday.
Why did the Falcons hold Penix out of their second preseason game? Head coach Raheem Morris said they saw enough of their rookie quarterback in the first preseason matchup against the Miami Dolphins.
"It was all about that. Last week we wanted to get him out there and get a feel for what he was in a live game, which we kind of already knew," Morris said, via the Falcons' official website. "We wanted to see him be able to answer questions, talk about it on the sideline, go out there and execute, make mistakes and know what to do. ... We saw enough last week of Michael Penix in the live stuff and now we had the chance to mitigate him, and in practice, you know, we give him a bunch of live stuff in practice that you do everything that you would do in a game other than get hit."
In the 20-13 loss to the Dolphins, Penix completed 9 of 16 passes for 104 yards and led the offense to 10 of its points. It was an interesting decision to keep Penix out of his second-ever NFL preseason game, but keep in mind that Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy just had his season ended by a torn meniscus suffered in his first NFL action. He becomes the first quarterback selected in the first round of the common draft era to miss his entire rookie season due to injury.
