- 2 months ago
Michael Penix Jr. has been cleared for 11-on-11 work but isn't comfortable returning to game action just yet, leaving Tua Tagovailoa as the Falcons' QB1.
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00:00so mikey thanks for being here on a tuesday morning yeah buddy uh nothing to talk about
00:04right like that's cool yeah just ease on into this thing try to just uh figure out what are
00:09we gonna do today anything to talk about anyways um scale of one to ten how surprised were you
00:15when you got up yesterday morning and found out the news uh four i like anybody that's followed
00:21kind of my train of thought like i think that there is the there is the known evil of to
00:26a
00:26tongue of iloa you saw what you saw in preseason didn't play against nyanapolis was not good
00:30against denver i thought he looked fine against the dolphins in week three and it's like i feel
00:36like the the sentiment was oh we know two is not playing well it's got to be pennix but we
00:41haven't
00:41seen pennix and not only have we not seen him this is a completely new offense and a lot of
00:46different
00:46moving pieces and it would be hard for me to think that pennix would be able to ramp up in
00:51time um you
00:52know from his own doing to be able to go against tj watt and having juwan taylor who hasn't played
00:59much of camp protecting you against tj watt that was that was a big ask for me and so i
01:04was about a
01:04four uh when they announced the two it was starting how uncommon is and maybe it's the way the narrative
01:14is playing itself out but how uncommon is a professional football player to be right to be
01:22cleared and tell the public and tell the fans that guy there is a hundred percent cleared by our
01:28doctors he's a big player on your team he's a starter and nine out of ten that means that person
01:36is playing for whatever the next game is in the nfl i i i don't really and i'm not blaming
01:41michael
01:42pennix for telling you exactly how he feels yes but how often do you hear guys cleared guy can play
01:47guys ready to go per the doctors i i i don't i think that's an important point that you made
01:53off the top i'm not blaming him he's in a unique situation where it's a whole new staff a whole
01:58new
01:58group of people and really it feels like he's kind of on his last leg when it comes to the
02:03falcons and
02:03playing well so he's going to take his time no pun intended yeah right right i don't and you would
02:09be better to ask you've been around pro sports longer than i have dude i've never seen it yeah no
02:13i've
02:14never seen it any level yeah okay so i'm not you know you played it so i think you know
02:18my only
02:19point was when you're cleared by the doctors and you're the most important player on the team normally
02:23that just means he'll be out there it wasn't one it wasn't five days of training camp he'll have
02:28had three full weeks since he's been cleared to start but that is where a lot of the vitriol is
02:35out
02:36there but i thought michael pennix jr when somebody tells you who they are believe him
02:41he has been telling you this that um he is tentative he has been telling you that he thinks
02:48there's a huge difference about getting rolled into or hit or playing in live bullets against
02:52another team and whatever he's been doing and there does not seem to be a confidence and he also
02:58said yesterday i've played before coming off an acl when i was cleared but i didn't feel right and
03:06i did not enjoy that i don't want to do that again yeah and again i don't i've never seen
03:12this
03:12play out and i didn't play quarterback breaking news i didn't play quarterback um just like steaks
03:16from from not from dothan um but every time i was cleared from a doctor it was like it was
03:23a celebration
03:23like i'm going to dinner like you know what i mean like me and the friends are going hey man
03:27i got
03:27cleared today let's go like i'm ready to strap up and i'm ready to roll it's a unique situation and
03:33again i'll say it i don't necessarily blame him this organization is at a crossroads michael
03:39pennix is at a crossroads they brought in tua they're not bought into him necessarily but i do i
03:45it's just unique man we we don't see this very often and for both sides to kind of you know
03:51go
03:51along on the tangent that like well he's clear whenever he's ready and picks is like whenever
03:54i'm ready when is that because i don't i don't know when that is if it's not week one of
03:59the football
04:00season i just i struggle with that he's not me in the locker room how's that's going to go over
04:04and and tell me who's 100 starting day one on the football field i think that
04:11to me it's outside out of mind on a football field which is probably not a good thing for mike
04:15i really not explain that though what you're saying he's not around joan taylor has you know was asked
04:20yesterday about tua hey man we we feel like tua can get the job done we're riding with tua we've
04:25got
04:25two is back we know the work that tua has put in if you're being asked about mike it's like
04:28hey
04:29whenever you know we'd love to see him we'd love to see the reps i'm curious how many reps he
04:34is
04:34going to get in practice like expand on that too because if you got to get tua ready to play
04:40pittsburgh steelers and you obviously have to get cooper rush ready to be the backup that doesn't
04:44leave a lot of time also oh by the way hey make sure you're developing jack strand i don't know
04:49like
04:49to me when do the reps come and not to mention if kevin safanski is irritated by this which we
04:54don't
04:54know but he could be if he's irritated by this conversation that might be all you need to know
05:00maybe all of a sudden those reps are really really dried up there's this notion that and i heard you
05:06guys debating will it be the green bay game because that way he's not trying to play on a sunday
05:11and a
05:11thursday you're not going to do that first time back so he'll definitely miss the second game which
05:16is carolina then there is short week listen to a tongue of aloa came here for one reason
05:24opportunity he saw an opportunity to resurrect his nfl career i'm not excited about it falcon fans are
05:31not excited about it the league is not excited about it but to a tongue of aloa came here for
05:37opportunity if they go out and execute and win the game and if they start three and two they start
05:45four and three he's got the job like they're i know we say the most important decision for the
05:51atlanta falcons is can michael pennix be their future quarterback and he ain't getting that job
05:56if tua can hang on to it so everything tua came here for is in front of him completely his
06:02team
06:02if they beat pittsburgh uh his leash gets longer if he doesn't make mistakes and you know if he's
06:10if he's 15 for 20 with 184 and two touchdowns yeah they're in games i'm not gonna just further
06:18they're not gonna take the job away from him now i'll take it a step further um kevin safanski
06:23has this is year six for him as a head coach how many years do you think he has begged
06:27to have a
06:28quarterback that he feels like he can go win games with that he actually has a future with
06:31so if he finds one in the first five games of the season he ain't letting that go that that
06:36is that's
06:37not going away this guy this is a head coach who has seen this play out year after year after
06:42year
06:42in cleveland and if he feels like he actually has a guy that can do it on the field and
06:46be a good
06:46locker room guy because i'm not sure baker was at the time when he had him in cleveland
06:49then i feel like you can you can really build on that and and i think that kevin safanski would
06:55jump at the opportunity to have that situation yeah i mean tua has all the opportunity in front of
07:02him it's called starting in the nfl against an offense on pittsburgh that is not going to be a
07:07very good offense it's a big time defense i think obviously they thought about michael pennix
07:11having to play that defense on the road may have been tough sledding but michael pennix is playing
07:16the long game michael pennix is not he doesn't care that maybe somebody in the locker room says he was
07:23cleared he doesn't care that we're on sports talk radio or mike bell telling him you got to send a
07:27different message michael pennix knows he is another acloa from being done with football the rest of his
07:32life i agree and and he is in no hurry because guess what he's going to get paid the next
07:37few years
07:38um it'd be great if he could come out and ball out and build a new contract and be the
07:42number one
07:42but he is on his own timetable and the people around him if they're smart enough for saying
07:48don't listen to the noise if you're saying after three acls you've played banged up before
07:55and you didn't feel right then he's not rushing back this isn't the nfc divisional playoffs this is a
08:04game with a very mediocre team which is what we are against another mediocre team and if he doesn't
08:10feel right then he is in no hurry i couldn't agree more he's playing a long game with us well
08:16i know
08:16if you're let's just let's just lay it all out there if you're part of his team yeah it's managing
08:21whatever maybe his agent i don't know do you think that they've done everything in their in their
08:26within their structure for the falcons to make this a super bowl team because i would argue no so if
08:31you're michael pennix on the flip side of that you're going all right this is all right you you
08:35signed juwan taylor in a one-year deal you you know it's kind of kind of piecemealed an offense
08:39together um you know obviously bajon's going to be the guy like are you looking at that going dude
08:45they're really putting you up to bat this could be a super bowl year if you're pennix you're looking
08:48at going okay like you got some you got some okay pieces john dotson's fine you know lamade
08:53zakias is fine i get it but you have to play both sides of it i think that's the hard
08:58part as a fan
08:59to try to put yourself in that headspace and i've but i've seen it happen in locker rooms where
09:03players are like look dude they have to do their part of it too and i think that we have
09:08just
09:08landed in this moment for pennix that's just hard for us to understand and look you see it in the
09:13nba
09:13a lot you see guys that you heard are clear they could play they sit they sit longer they sit
09:19half
09:19seasons you're like you know the kawai's of the world i don't know how hurt he is he's clear what's
09:25that reputation well the reputation is it's soft and it's soft in the nfl as well so i'd like to
09:30know and everybody can bang on kirk cousins and we we did last year well he's putting us in jeopardy
09:36why didn't he come forward i don't think it was his fault i think the coaches should have seen what
09:39was going on but i have never heard or seen mike some guy that is so ready to be like
09:45tap out i'm i'm
09:47not ready yet and you you you probably are right both of you are right but the perception of it
09:52is
09:53it's hard if he is not game in why isn't he itching to get back on the field where is
09:58that
09:58mentality of he's a warrior everybody i'm going to show my teammates that we're it's all together
10:03we're going to do this together so again both things can be true he told you though you said
10:08why isn't he because he doesn't feel ready well he doesn't feel he can perform i know coming off this
10:15acl here's the here's the flip side of what sandy's saying the flip side of this is if he does
10:21come
10:21back and he plays okay like not i'm not not extraordinarily well but okay what do you think
10:26the urgency will be like for matt ryan and company to give him a new contract that's where i'm at
10:30because you know how matt is oh really you you're not ready to go to battle with us oh okay
10:36but but
10:37they have his rights for three more years well they're gonna so he'll play through three but you
10:41have to make the decision on the fifth year option after three so that'll be coming up this awesome i
10:46think he could sit most of the year and still get brought back on a rookie deal just not on
10:52the
10:52fifth year i mean listen yeah i mean does he knows one thing if i go out there and play
10:56bad i'll probably
10:57be done and released right exactly right if i just have to say i don't know i'm a backup quarterback
11:03my
11:04time will come i'll sit for eight weeks again i don't mind i it's just it's a tough pill to
11:09swallow
11:09but i understand where he's coming from with telling you yeah he's like why aren't you ready to get out
11:13there sandra that's a great question because i don't feel like i can perform yeah so i agree
11:19you're not used to hearing it my point is the nba you hear all the nfl you don't hear