Only think weak about Michael Penix are his detractors

Name: Only think weak about Michael Penix are his detractors
Uploaded: 2026-09-10T20:10:30+00:00
Duration: 21 min 21 s
Channel: WZGC-FM / 92.9 The Game

00:00Good morning. Welcome to A to Z here on 92.9 The Game, where today I tell you words are

00:05hard,

00:06synonyms are harder, and don't ever question a man's motivation. More on that coming up in just

00:11a moment. Welcome in everybody to the second installment here of A to Z on 92.9thegame.com,

00:1592.9thegame. You too appreciate you guys tuning in. Do me a favor. First off, hit that subscribe

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00:27thumbs up as well to the video content. Drop a comment down below. Let me know what your guys

00:30thoughts are on the show. Just episode number two of the installment here. We're going to be doing

00:34this twice a week at the outset. So make sure you guys hit that subscribe button so you're locked in

00:39every single time. Also coming up on the show, we'll discuss the Atlanta Braves and the threat of

00:43being swept as they head into a big weekend series with the Phillies. And we'll even give you guys

00:47some picks in the NFL and college before we get out of here to help make you guys a little

00:53bit of

00:53extra cash this weekend. We're going to dive right into the Atlanta Falcons, but let's get A to Z

00:59underway. All right, we continue along here with the saga that has dominated the Falcons offseason.

01:07And that's one of the position of quarterback. And look, you know, I will still maintain everything

01:14that I've said all along that I kind of felt like it was handled sloppily and that there was a

01:20cleaner

01:21way to do this. Let's just put that on pause for a moment because if you listen to the first

01:24episode

01:25A to Z, I went into greater detail on that. But what I've seen online and from some of my

01:33fellow

01:33media folks coming up since the decision was made to start Tua and Michael Penix has said he's not ready

01:41is a choice of words that I find rather troubling. It's a choice of words to me that says we're

01:49not

01:49really paying attention here to the big picture. And I get it to a certain extent, fans and even some

01:55of

01:55the media get myopic and insular and they only can see the short targets that sit right in front of

02:01them and the here and now. But in certain cases, it's still okay sometimes to play for the long game

02:11and do what's best in the long interest of the organization and in this case, the player.

02:16There is nothing weak about Michael Penix. Those things are not weak. His decision to not be ready

02:25to play is not weak. The only thing that's weak is the guy who made that argument. That's about it.

02:31The reality is that Michael Penix realizes very clearly this is his last shot to make an impression

02:39and stick in the NFL. It is absolutely his very last chance. Right? It didn't go well for the last

02:48three games as they missed the playoffs in his first year. It didn't go well last year as he tore

02:52his ACL again. They're not going to give you a fourth chance to do this over again. At least the

02:59Falcons

02:59won't. Because the reality for Michael Penix is simply this. If and when he comes back, if it doesn't

03:07smack you right in the face that this is the guy to lead your franchise, he's gone. It's that simple.

03:15If he doesn't play well, if he doesn't elevate the team, if he doesn't get them to the playoffs,

03:20doesn't make them look and feel better than they have since Matt Ryan was under center, then guess what?

03:27He's not playing here anymore and he's out of a job and somebody else is going to have to pick

03:31him up

03:31to go be a backup somewhere and then he's got to start to climb the mountain again. Oh, by the

03:35way,

03:36he's going to have to do it with this cloud of being injury prone hanging over his head.

03:42Why do you think he's being extra cautious? It's not because of weak or soft or whatever term

03:50synonym you want to use. This is actually the right play for him. And the problem is this,

03:58and this is why it looks that way. I will concede that to a certain percentage or portion of the

04:04population that it could look weak that he decided not to be ready. But the problem was,

04:11is that Mike was put in that position because in reality, let's go back. They should have never

04:17cleared him, period. I don't know what world we didn't think that Michael Penix wasn't going to be

04:25ready for the start of the regular season. We all kind of assumed that. We all assumed it going in.

04:31And this is why I say, and I'll go back to this again, the way the Falcons handled this thing

04:35was

04:35sloppy. If Michael Penix, okay, knew he wasn't going to be mentally ready the day that they decided

04:45to clear him, then what did you clear him for? Because this is the issue. As I said last time,

04:53we all understand what cleared means. I'll use the example again if you didn't watch the first episode.

04:58When you get cleared for takeoff on a plane, the plane works. There's fuel in it. There's nothing

05:04wrong. You ride out to the runway. There's no other planes in front of you, and you go.

05:09Cleared. People think the same thing. By clearing him, everybody got the perception that he was ready

05:15to play, and he wasn't. Why did you clear him? It would have been better off. The Falcons would

05:20have been better off to stash him on pup for four weeks. It would have made a hell of a

05:25lot more sense

05:25and would have ended all of this drama because they cleared him, and he's saying, well, I'm not

05:30ready. You're telling me I'm ready, but I'm not ready. That's where people are going to go, oh,

05:35he's weak. No, he's not weak. He's being pragmatic and smart about this and realizing if I come back

05:42early and I don't trust my knee and I make mistakes, it's going to cost me and the team,

05:47and I'm not going to get another crack at this thing. That's why this is being played the way it

05:54is, and I'll stand by this. I think the Falcons, the way they handled this, have put him in that

05:59situation, that people could perceive him as weak or soft or not ready to play or not wanting to play

06:04or questioning his motivation about what he wants to be in this league and where he wants to go

06:09because they cleared him, and you should have never done it. Should have never done it.

06:15Like, in theory, they could have slapped him on IR with a designation to return

06:20after two weeks and then opened up the window and he's back in. Like,

06:23maybe he's ready for week two. We don't know that because

06:25it seems like everything is flying by the seat of your pants. That's what it seems like.

06:33If he's cleared next week, I'll go back to asking the question,

06:36what was the difference between 25 practices and 28? What did one extra week do for you

06:43the three extra practices you got, right? Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Monday is

06:48walk-through film day. Tuesday is an off day. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

06:52Saturday is walk-through day. You had three practices of 11 on 11. What did the three extra

06:56practices do for you that you needed that you didn't get before? But again, this isn't about

07:03Penix being soft because he's not. This is about him choosing the best opportunity for him to land

07:13in this league and stay in this league for as long as possible. Because if he comes back early and

07:21lays

07:21an egg, he is done. This whole experiment is over. There's no reason for the Falcons to hang on

07:28and wait any longer. And certainly not picking it up at 50 or option if it flops this year.

07:35I mean, there's a lot on the line here for Michael Penix Jr. And there's a lot on the line

07:40for the

07:40Falcons organization because again, I don't think the Falcons have any desire to want to dump Michael

07:46Penix. But if he doesn't play well this year, what alternative do you really have? How much more

07:52can you try to squeeze juice out of a lemon before you realize there ain't nothing left?

07:58I mean, that's what is going on here. And so I just, I'm wondering why the situation is handled

08:09like it is. And can I say one more thing to all you people on my timeline, okay, talking about

08:15the

08:15media to this, the media to that. No, the media didn't do squat. Stop being freaking lazy.

08:20Stop complaining about like, you know, the media setting. So we didn't set any narratives. Nobody

08:25did. I'm in that room with all those media people once a week, at least talking to all the same

08:29media

08:29people to cover team. We don't create anything. We ask very valid questions and we come to very

08:35sensible, logical conclusions about the way things are handled. That's all. And the idea as we continue

08:45to go through this whole process, that there were certain things about this whole competition or,

08:51you know, the way they put the whole thing out that weren't strange. I don't understand how

08:56objectively you can't see it that way. You guys want to boil it down to as simple as, oh, he's

09:00not

09:00healthy. Okay. Well, which one is it? Either he's not healthy or he is healthy. Either he's ready or

09:04he's not. He was cleared or he's not cleared. I mean, for the record, Michael Penix was a full

09:10participant in practice today. Full participant. But he's going to be inactive on game day.

09:18Does that make sense to anybody else? I mean, theoretically, guys can be full participants in

09:24practice and be inactive on game day. Usually those guys who are inactive on game day are questionable.

09:32That's why they get inactive on game day when they're not ready to play. So I haven't figured

09:39out the method to the Falcons' madness and this whole thing, or Kevin Stefanski's for that matter.

09:44But I do know pretty with a clear amount of certainty, this isn't about weak or soft.

09:49This is about maximizing the last opportunity you have. This is about making sure the last

09:55bullet you have on the gun lands on target. That's what this is about for Michael Penix.

10:00And everybody should be able to understand that. This isn't a flu game. This isn't Jake Cutler

10:06taking himself out of a playoff game. This isn't a guy going, I just don't have it anymore.

10:12I don't feel like doing it. This is not any of those things. This is about a quarterback who has

10:18his last chance to make an impression on the organization that drafted him, probably his last

10:24chance to become a bona fide starter in this league. You better make it count. You absolutely

10:30better make it count. All right, we're going to get to the Braves here coming up in just a moment.

10:35But first, always time to hand out a shovel of wisdom. Brace yourselves, because it's time

10:42for the Shovel of Wisdom.

10:52You know how we do it every single show. We like to whack somebody upside the head with a shovel

10:56just

10:56to let them know how dumb they are. And today, my shovel goes to Romeo Dowbs.

11:01My God, did anybody watch that Patriots-Seahawks game last night?

11:07I mean, you want to talk about the game hinging on one play. I don't know that it ever happens

11:15often other than an idiot kicker missing a field goal. But there was in the game last night,

11:21if you watched all this and the way it broke down, there was a moment in the fourth quarter of

11:27that

11:27game that literally was changed because Romeo Dowbs could not hang on to the football on a pass that

11:35hit him right in the hands. And I mean, right in the hands. It is a 10-10 ball game.

11:44And there is,

11:47what are we looking at here? About eight minutes, no, about 10 minutes left in the game.

11:52Okay. And it is now second and 14. And Dowbs runs this crossing route and ends up wide open.

12:02And May rolls out, escapes trouble, throws it to him, puts it right on his hands. When he catches the

12:08ball, if he takes one step, he is in first down territory near midfield. And that changes and flips

12:17the field on everything. The very next pass, Drake May got picked off. Seattle goes down,

12:22kicks the field goal. We know what happened for the rest of the night there. But I mean,

12:27talk just objectively, even if he catches that and they go three and out of the next thing at

12:33midfield and they punt it away and they pin Seattle deep, you're asking Seattle to go the

12:38length of the field in that spot with Drew freaking lock. No way. I didn't see it happening. I just

12:43didn't see it happen. Like it's one of those things where you got to catch that damn ball,

12:47man. Like that's inexcusable. You can't make that drop. And I don't think that Drake May looked his

12:53way the rest of the evening after that drop. He was supposed to be a guy that was really supposed

12:59to help this team out, really make an impact. And it didn't happen. And last night, you know,

13:04Patriots obviously take the loss. So we'll move on from there. Let's get to the Atlanta Braves here

13:11before we get to our plays and picks for the weekend. They are finishing up their three game

13:16series with the Braves today. Trying to, I mean, with the Rays rather, trying to avoid being swept.

13:20And I did not think the Braves were going to lose the first two games of this series. But what's

13:25problematic more than anything is that you have what is now a three game lead, lose this one,

13:33have Philly end up winning today against Houston. And you go into this weekend series

13:39down by two. And then all Philly's got to do is take two out of three. And it's a one

13:44game,

13:44it's a one game lead for the final two weeks of the regular season. The Braves not holding on to

13:51win this division will be problematic. And here's why I think more than anything, you know, for all

13:58the complainers and whiners and consternators about the Braves, if they blow the division lead,

14:03it's going to validate a lot of their thoughts, even though I don't think many of them are correct.

14:07I mean, the Braves have holes, but so does everybody else. The Braves aren't a perfect

14:11roster, but there are no perfect rosters outside of the Dodgers. Like that's the only one that

14:14really doesn't have a couple of warts on it. And so whether we're talking about trying to win the

14:22World Series here, or make a deep playoff run or whatever it is, the Braves problems are much less

14:26compared to that of the many of the other teams are going to be in this postseason. And losing this

14:31lead, I think would only validate narratives that I don't ultimately believe to be true

14:35about this, this team. I just genuinely don't. I don't think that this team has many more problems

14:42than answers. And if it ends up slipping away from them, there's going to be a whole avalanche

14:51of Braves fans who are going to have a lot to say, both right, wrong, or indifferent. And I think

14:57for

14:58the most part, those things that are wrong are going to be what we talk about for the entire offseason.

15:03If somehow they don't pull off a miraculous run, beat the Dodgers, get to the World Series and win

15:08the thing. Five years removed from a World Series, people are talking about this team like,

15:16you know, it's the Cleveland Guardians. It's not. This is not a franchise that's like that.

15:22I mean, I'm a Yankee fan. You guys know this. It's been a lot more miserable for Yankees fans than

15:27it has been for Braves fans. That's the reality of it. And we spend more. We theoretically,

15:33the Yankees have more of a budget. They're willing to go out there and pay more and do

15:36everything else. They offered one, so to three quarters of a billion dollars. I mean, the Braves,

15:40Liberty Media is never doing that, ever. So the litany of problems that persist for big market

15:49franchises are really very small. And it's a couple of tweaks here and there that need to happen.

15:54But we tend to magnify them when things don't go well. The same thing will happen to the Yankees.

15:59If they get bounced by the Red Sox and lose the first two games in the wildcard,

16:04yeah, the reaction will be big. And if the Braves lose the division to the Phillies and then get

16:11bounced in the first round of the wildcard, the reaction will be big. But I don't think the

16:17narratives to that reaction are all that accurate or necessarily solve a lot of the problems.

16:24That's just me. Could be wrong on that. But let's see how the rest of this weekend plays out

16:29in the series with the Phillies. By the way, you're getting Aaron Noah against Chris Sale

16:35on Friday. You're getting Jesus Lozardo and Tyler Molle on Saturday, which should be a really good

16:41matchup. And then on Sunday, Andrew Painter and Grant Holmes, which I would expect means that we're

16:45going to score a ton of runs in that one. All right. We're going to close things up here

16:52for our episode for the week here. College football, NFL football. If you guys don't know,

16:58I write a weekly column on ESPN.com for all college football players. And I'll give them to

17:03you here. But I'd love for you guys to go to ESPN.com. I usually tweet it out on my

17:06Twitter

17:07at Mark Zinno that you guys can get the column yourself. But a couple of games I'm looking at right

17:12here, and I'll give you four that I'm looking at in college before I go to the NFL. Number one,

17:18Duke, Illinois, under 51 and a half. Somehow Illinois scored 42 points last week. That

17:23included completing a Hail Mary, a pick six in a game that they were outgained, and they only

17:28possessed the ball for 18 minutes and 57 seconds. So in reality, they only scored 28, and they got

17:33lucky 14 points. Last year when they played Duke, they scored 45. They were also outgained in that game

17:38by Duke, and they got five turnovers, which led to four touchdowns. I don't see it happening again

17:44here. I don't think that this Illinois offense is all that potent. Duke's offense obviously taking a

17:49hit without Darian Mensah, and they only got 17 points against Tulane last week. Let's go under

17:5451 and a half. Clemson, the ultimate buy low spot on the Clemson Tigers, folks. First half, minus 12 and

18:02a

18:02half. Clemson had zero chance to beat LSU, just completely outmatched. But I think that's more of an

18:08reflection of how good LSU is, not necessarily how bad Clemson is. But if they are bad, I'm willing

18:13to pay for it. I'm willing to be wrong here and lose a bet to pay for it. Georgia Southern,

18:19every time they're asked to step up in class against better conference opponents over the

18:22last two years, they've averaged given up over 52 points in those two games. Clemson, first half,

18:26minus 12 and a half. If they're not leading by at least two touchdowns at half, the boos are going

18:32to be raining down harder in Clemson than the downpour that was against the game, the game

18:38against LSU last week. So there's that. USC, first half, minus 19 and a half. They're taking

18:44on Louisiana. This may be the best offense in the country in USC. They averaged 29 points in the

18:50first half to the first two games this season. Louisiana's given up over 30 points per game last

18:55year, only returned three starters on defense. Kind of a showcase game for Jaden Maiavo, continues to make

18:59a case for the Heisman. Plus, Lincoln Riley wants to get his team prepared for a trip east where they've

19:04struggled in the Big Ten against Rutgers next week. So I don't think he's going to take the first half

19:08of this game too lightly, make sure the starters are really locked in and everything else. And so I expect

19:13them to play pretty good there. And then finally, Sam Houston State, the Bearcats, plus 13 and a half.

19:19This is a situational spot. They're playing Tulsa. Sam Houston is home facing Tulsa. Tulsa just upset

19:25Oklahoma State for the second year in a row. Last year after they beat Oklahoma State,

19:29Tulsa dropped a home game to Tulane. I think they lose here. I think Sam Houston is live to win

19:36this

19:36thing on the money line. But plus 13 and a half feels really good. So those are the college football

19:42plays. My NFL card, a lot shorter. I will say this much of the games that I really like the

19:50most here

19:52this week. Look, number one, I'll take the under in Atlanta-Pittsburgh. I know all of the

19:59talk about what the Falcons' record is against the Steelers. I don't take any of that into account.

20:04It's different coaches, different quarterbacks, different everything. So none of that really

20:08matters from that standpoint. I think the under comes in. I think the Falcons could cover this thing.

20:13I think this defense is going to be better than what we expect for Atlanta. They can stop the run.

20:19They're going to be fine. Like Carolina a lot this week, but see if you can get a three and

20:24a half.

20:24I think Chicago's overvalued. I take the Bears. I mean, the Panthers rather, plus the three and a half

20:30at home against Chicago. I kind of like the Raiders. I think Miami's that terrible. But yeah,

20:38I would lay it with the Raiders. Love Tampa Bay getting three and a half from Cincinnati as well.

20:42Don't think they're very good. And by the way, my favorite play of the week, Denver plus two and a

20:47half on Monday night. They're beating KC outright. Book it. Write it down. All right. Appreciate you

20:53guys joining me here on A to Z. We will be back next week. Drop a comment below. Let me

20:59know what

20:59you guys think of the show. Love to hear your thoughts on everything we talked about as well.

21:02Make sure that you guys are subscribed and keep looking forward to all the great content

21:08that we have here on 929thegame.com, 929thegame YouTube. Best of luck with all your bets this

21:13weekend. Go Falcons. Let's make sure we get a win out of this thing. We'll be back to recap

21:17it all next week right here on A to Z.

Only think weak about Michael Penix are his detractors

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