- 17 minutes ago
Mark Zinno explains why Michael Penix’s timeline makes complete sense. He addresses why some media and fans are unable to grasp that this was the Falcons' timeline for Penix all along. And finally, he discusses what Penix must do next now that he’s Atlanta's starter at quarterback.
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00:02Good morning. Welcome to A to Z here on Sports Radio 92.9 The Game where today I tell you
00:06I did my job. Now it's time for you to do yours. Welcome in to another edition here of A
00:11to Z. Make sure you guys hit that subscribe button so you're alerted every single time A to Z pops
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00:20to this video. Smash that thumbs up as well and give a comment down below. As you can see, not
00:24in my normal digs. I'm on location here for this week.
00:28So bear with me on that. I know it looks like a hostage video. Trust me, everything is okay. We
00:34have a lot to get into here with Michael Penix being officially named the starter for week three for the
00:40Falcons. And as they start their journey here with Michael Penix, there is so much to get into. Mostly a
00:46lot of it with many of my colleagues in the media who simply can't seem to understand the very basic
00:52premise of why this went down the way it did. I've tried to explain it several times before.
00:58They're not going to understand it. I'm going to do so in 50 seconds.
01:01My calculations are correct. When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious.
01:11It's time for A to Z with Mark Zeno. It's elite sports knowledge.
01:17I am the smartest man alive.
01:20It's in your face opinions.
01:23In the face. In the face.
01:25We got some good times.
01:27We hate to.
01:28I am.
01:30And some good information.
01:32Get f***ed in.
01:33When Atlanta talks sports, there's only one place to turn.
01:38You want me on that wall.
01:40You need me on that wall.
01:43A to Z starts now.
01:51All right. Welcome back in.
01:53So anyway, you know, by the way, it's early in the morning here.
01:56I'm doing this.
01:57So that's part of the reason why the lighting is so dim and everything.
02:00But regardless of that, I promise you, everything's okay.
02:02Not a hostage video.
02:03Anyway, Michael Penix gets announced as a starter.
02:06So let's back it up here a little bit.
02:07You know, like after the debacle that was Sunday and it was a debacle.
02:11No one's saying it's not.
02:12No one is saying that Sunday was good.
02:14No one's saying that Sunday was anything that should be tolerated.
02:18Cooper Rush was awful.
02:19The team was awful.
02:20The offense was awful.
02:21The defense held on as long as they could for a quarter and a half.
02:25And then it just got away from everybody.
02:27And that's, you know, what happens sometimes in NFL games.
02:30No one's saying it should be okay.
02:32I'm not saying it should be okay.
02:33It wasn't okay.
02:34Is it a little bit understandable?
02:35Maybe.
02:36But that doesn't mean that it's okay.
02:38And so after the game on Sunday, I tweeted out, like, if the Falcons do not announce their quarterback on
02:45Monday when Kevin Stefanski meets with the media, shame on them.
02:48Well, and the reason why is because they have a Thursday night game.
02:51And so, you know, typically for the first two weeks, the fans have been waiting until Wednesday to announce who
02:56the quarterback is.
02:57It wouldn't tell us in the beginning of the week.
02:59Well, with the truncated timetable, you kind of need to know because Monday they do install on a short week.
03:04And so you have to know who your quarterback is.
03:06Well, when Stefanski met with the media on Monday, he did not tell us who it was.
03:10He said he didn't know yet, and he wanted to speak to the team.
03:13And I gave a little bit of a reprieve to him because maybe he didn't speak to the team.
03:18You know, these timetables are a little bit weird when it comes to short weeks, you know, and how certain
03:25coaches handle it, certain coaches don't.
03:27And so clearly he hadn't talked to the players yet, or at least that's what he was saying.
03:30I don't have no reason to believe that he lied and that, you know, later on in the day, it
03:35comes out that Penix is the starter, as we all assume.
03:38And this was something I told you guys on Friday.
03:41If you were listening as I filled in with Carl Dukes on Friday on Dukes and Bell, I told you
03:46guys that Thursday was very live.
03:49Everybody's sitting here going, why?
03:50It's a short week.
03:50It's a short week.
03:51It's not a short week for him.
03:53It was a very long two and a half weeks that they have been building up to get to this
03:57moment.
03:57And furthermore, it makes all the sense in the world that he's had two and a half weeks to get
04:01ready, and then he'll have 11 days to get ready again for the next game.
04:04It makes perfect sense that he would start on a short week, or at least a short week for you
04:10guys, but again, not a short week for him.
04:12So the point simply is, is that, like, all of this proves what I've been saying all along, that the
04:20timeline has always been there.
04:22It has always been the same timeline.
04:25We just have never been told what the timeline was.
04:28I'll go back to it, and I'll say it again.
04:30Legitimous mistake the Falcons made.
04:32They botched the messaging of this whole thing.
04:35If they just would have said from the very beginning that Michael won't be ready at week one at the
04:40start of the season, we projected to be ready week three or week four, all of this was done.
04:44There was no reason to treat this like it was some CIA information, or it was something that the National
04:49Security Agency should only know and nobody else.
04:52There really wasn't.
04:53It was a foolish move.
04:54I said it from the jump, but now we see that it was more and more foolish.
04:58Now, again, Tua stinking the joint up and then getting hurt with the oblique, the Wednesday of practice, you know,
05:04of week one didn't help matters.
05:06It certainly made things a lot worse because Cooper Rush clearly is not ready to be an NFL quarterback anymore.
05:12It's just not.
05:13Like, that's the reality of it.
05:14After what we've seen, we have a pretty good sample size of data from his time in Baltimore and his
05:18time in Atlanta that he is no longer an NFL quarterback, period.
05:23So move that aside.
05:26That kind of threw the optics, the Tua thing kind of threw the optics of this whole thing upside down.
05:33And, you know, we are in this sort of ugly situation of where we've had to watch putrid football for
05:38the last two weeks and embarrassing football for the team and the organization.
05:42But here we are.
05:44This timeline was always the same.
05:47And you can now tell that it was always the same.
05:49There was never anything about this timeline that seemed off.
05:53The only thing that seemed off is, again, didn't tell us, cleared him, bad idea, cleared him, it was a
05:59bad idea.
06:00And here we are.
06:03What I can't get from my colleagues in the media here, what I can't get is this notion that instead
06:12of celebrating the fact that he's back, you're still bitching at him for being back.
06:17Now, it is fair to ask the question, what changed between Sunday and Monday that you couldn't play on Sunday
06:28and you could play on Monday?
06:29Because that is a legitimate question, and it's one that I have asked, and I asked Kevin Stefanski after they
06:36cleared him during training camp, what's the difference between, you know, they said, oh, well, he only had six or
06:42seven practices of 11 on 11 reps.
06:45What's the difference between seven and 10, 10 and 15, 15 and 20?
06:49What's the difference between seven and 20?
06:52Like, that's a fair, legitimate question to ask.
06:54It's a fair, legitimate question to want an answer to.
06:58We're not going to get one, but the only thing I can tell you is that this was always the
07:03plan, that this was the target date on the wall.
07:06And as long as he was going along and hitting all the check marks, this was the date that he
07:12was always going to start.
07:13This is what they were trending towards from the beginning.
07:16It was circled in the calendar, and as long as he didn't have any setbacks, this is the way it
07:20was going to go.
07:22That's the answer.
07:22Now, they won't tell you that.
07:23I don't know why.
07:25I don't know what the Falcons' logic is and their PR and, you know, communications team's logic isn't handling this
07:30the way they did.
07:31Because, again, I'll say it repeatedly, and I've said it to him.
07:33I think it was terrible.
07:34You botched it.
07:36Maybe you can go back and do it differently.
07:38Obviously, you can't.
07:39But the fact of the matter is the messaging was terrible, and that's why we're here.
07:42So I think that question is fair and legitimate.
07:44But the idea that you're still pissed at him because he didn't play the first two weeks is silly and
07:51it's ludicrous.
07:51And it holds – that's your emotions.
07:53That has nothing to do with Michael Penix.
07:55It's not your timeline.
07:56It's his timeline.
07:58This is his knee, his rehab, his repair, not yours.
08:05And people say, oh, we wasted two games.
08:07We're 0-2.
08:08Okay.
08:09Deal with it.
08:10There are a lot of teams who are 0-2.
08:12The Chargers are 0-2.
08:15I mean, the Texans are 0-2.
08:17These are playoff teams from last year.
08:20They're 0-2.
08:21Deal with it.
08:22Get over it.
08:23Stop whining.
08:24Because, again, the goal of making the playoffs was something that was out there, but it was never really the
08:32true overarching goal this season.
08:35The overarching goal, okay, was to – is and still is to figure out if Penix is your future.
08:43That is the bigger picture goal here.
08:45If the playoffs come with it because he plays well enough, guess what?
08:48We answered two questions, not one.
08:51And that's a good thing.
08:53But what you ultimately need to find out is if Penix is your future, and if he is, you're going
09:00to see it coming through when he starts playing.
09:03If they can win enough games, then guess what?
09:08They'll go to the playoffs.
09:10But finding out who he is and what he is are more important than anything else in the short term
09:17and in the long term for the Falcons
09:20because they do not want to be spending another first-round pick on a quarterback next year.
09:24That is not in the best interest of the long-term interest of the organization.
09:28It's not.
09:30So the point simply is, to everybody who's still complaining that Michael Penix is back, that's a you problem.
09:37Don't make it a him problem.
09:38And certainly don't make it an us problem.
09:40Like, you're acting like spoiled children is what you're doing.
09:45You've whined and complained for weeks to get a toy, and then finally when you get the toy, you're still
09:51upset because it took so long.
09:55I mean, that's what this boils down to.
09:58It's a bad attitude.
09:59It's a bad look.
10:00And I'm not sure, you know, if it comes from long-suffering Falcon fan angst or what.
10:05And maybe it does.
10:06And I certainly can't speak to that.
10:09I mean, I can look at it from the outside and go, I get it.
10:12Hey, I understand it.
10:13I do get it.
10:13I do understand it.
10:14But some of that has to be put aside.
10:18But, I mean, look, we are here because of a litany of mistakes that this organization has made, even just
10:25in my time covering the team.
10:27But mostly a litany of mistakes they've made since the Arthur Smith era, over and over and over again mistakes,
10:35that they're still trying to play catch up on.
10:37And here they are.
10:40But, man, I mean, just be happy the dude is back.
10:44Be happy the dude is ready to play.
10:49And be happy that the fact that you're going to see better football because you can't see worse.
10:54You objectively can't see worse.
10:57I mean, it was really, really bad.
11:00Really bad.
11:03So, look, I want to hit Shovels of Wisdom.
11:07When we get back, there is a part of this whole Michael Penick saga now that he has to take
11:15care of.
11:15I'll tell you what that is coming up right after we hand out a Shovel of Wisdom.
11:19Brace yourselves because it's time for the Shovel of Wisdom.
11:33All right, today my Shovel goes to Jameis Winston.
11:37Yeah, oh, God.
11:40You know, anybody watch that Monday night game last night?
11:43Let's hope Jackson Dart is okay.
11:46Jameis Winston, at the beginning of the year when he was doing all of his stuff with the Giants, let's
11:52see,
11:53during the offseason, he was doing stuff with the World Cup.
11:57He was on the microphone for Fox.
11:59He was hanging around in training camp.
12:01I think he told everybody in the media he was just here for giggles.
12:06Giggle was what your attempt was at quarterback last night.
12:09My God, was he awful.
12:10Oh, I mean, the Giants can't send him back out there.
12:15They can't.
12:16Objectively, they can't.
12:17He's terrible.
12:19He is approaching Cooper Rush territory as far as his quarterback play.
12:24That was awful last night.
12:26Maybe if he wasn't so worried about the giggles and wasn't so worried about the World Cup and wasn't so
12:30worried about his post-football career,
12:33broadcasting career, the Giants might have had a shot last night.
12:37That was bad.
12:38That was pathetic.
12:39And I'm not here for it any longer.
12:41Really not.
12:43I just think that they have to figure out a way to get some better quarterback play.
12:49I mean, it's really bad right now in the NFL when you look at all these backups who are coming
12:54in.
12:55I mean, Carson Wentz, you know, it was a rain-soaked game for Minnesota.
12:58But Carson Wentz was terrible.
13:01It was not an impressive performance.
13:03You know, you're just seeing backups beyond backups run around this league.
13:07And people complain it's bad for viewership.
13:10And it is.
13:11But it's not something monumental that's going to change the course of the league.
13:15All right.
13:15Let's get back to Michael Pennix and the Falcons here.
13:20I want to put this disclaimer out there.
13:23So if things go down the road that we don't want them to, that you don't come back to me
13:29and tell me that I was wrong.
13:32Because the whole time what I'm defending here with Michael Pennix, I'm not defending the level of quarterback he is.
13:38I'm defending his position and his stance on returning from the injury
13:46and understanding why the timeline was what it was.
13:51Now, in a sense, that was my job to shoo away all the detractors who couldn't really understand this
13:58and look at it through an objective lens as to why this was taking so long
14:03and why it didn't go down the way you thought it should.
14:06Michael Pennix now job to play and play well.
14:09That we can't control at all.
14:12I mean, again, if Michael Pennix goes out there and plays poorly, well, it answers the question.
14:18Is he a long-term franchise guy?
14:20And the answer is no.
14:22But the other thing it does is it doesn't invalidate the timeline that he had to recover from the injury.
14:30And I think that's the point.
14:32One of the things is that he has to hold up his end of the bargain now.
14:37He has to be good for all of us.
14:40If he's bad, it's going to make the organization look awful all around.
14:46And if he's bad, I'm not sure Stefanski can recover from it.
14:51I mean, again, the people who want Stefanski fired, you guys need to take a lap.
14:55I mean, go outside, touch some grass, whatever it is.
14:57Just stop.
14:59This is not a Stefanski problem.
15:01It's a problem he inherited.
15:03It's a mess he inherited.
15:05Now, there's an argument to say, why would you take the job if it was a mess?
15:09Fair question.
15:10But there are a lot of guys who take coaches and jobs in the NFL who inherit messes and try
15:14to turn it around.
15:15And some of it works for some people it doesn't.
15:19Some guys can do it.
15:20Some guys can't.
15:21I mean, that's just the reality of it.
15:23So I don't really get too much into why or he should or shouldn't have took the job.
15:29But Penix's job now is to play and play well.
15:33And if he can do that, then that solves a ton of problems for everybody.
15:38If he doesn't play well, unfortunately, you get your answer.
15:42And he's not getting a fifth-year option.
15:45He likely won't be extended by the team for a second contract.
15:49And he'll go be a backup somewhere else when it's all said and done.
15:51And the Falcons will be drafting inside the top ten and taking a quarterback again.
15:55Wash, rinse, repeat.
15:56But again, not the best solution.
15:59I think everybody should feel fairly comfortable at this point.
16:02You're going to see a better version of the Falcons.
16:05You're going to see a better version of this offense.
16:07And everyone's going to be a lot happier.
16:09You can tell the players are frustrated.
16:11The coaching staff is frustrated.
16:12You can tell a lot of things about what has gone on with the franchise and the way things have
16:21gone the first two weeks.
16:22And no one is happy.
16:23They shouldn't be.
16:24Now it's time for it all to get better.
16:27All right.
16:28Shortened version here of A to Z.
16:29Again, sorry I'm on location.
16:31I'll have a better version coming up later on this week.
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16:34Drop a comment down below.
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16:47Back with A to Z later on in the week.
16:49Enjoy the start of your week here.
16:51And we'll talk to you next time.
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