Can Michael Penix Jr. lead the Falcons to the postseason in 2025?

Yahoo

20-05-2025

Can Michael Penix Jr. lead the Falcons to the postseason in 2025? | Inside Coverage
Jason Fitz, Charles Robinson, and Frank Schwab break down the biggest changes for the Falcons heading into the 2025 season and where they've improved from this time last year.
Hear the full conversation on 'Inside Coverage' - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
What about the Falcons, 8 and 9 last year, over and under 7.5 CO rise, repeat, or retreat on Atlantic compared to how you felt a year ago right now?
And this is a tough one, man.
This is a tough one for me, because so much of it is predicated on Michael Penn, right?
And, and so much of it is predicated, I think defensively you went and you drafted two defensive ends in the first round.
Um, I think you have to get production immediately cause I mean, they needed.
They pass rush in the worst possible way.
They got to get it out of rookies right away and it's a little iffy, you know, it's, it's, it's hard to, to bend, depend on, um, you know, edge rushers coming out of the box as rookies and just blowing it up, which is really what they need.
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But again, I do think a lot of this is where the young players now go surrounding Penn.
Um, you know, Bijon, can we see him step onto the level of like Saquan Barkley last year?
Like, no, I'm not saying.
2000 yards rushing, but just be a dominant running back, um, you know, regardless of the circumstance.
Drake London, does he take a big, you know, step forward that, you know, I think we, we've seen him moving again in the right direction, but it's, it does Pennick put it together.
Now he's had the whole offseason passing program.
He'll have had the offseason passing program as the number one quarterback, um.
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You know, I thought he showed glimpses last year down the stretch, um, but in no way did I look at him and go, yeah, yeah, he'll take that big step in, in year two.
that to me is the must.
So I'm, I'm probably, I, I'm probably, I'm gonna do this with every team, I think.
Repeat, I think I think it's gonna be a lot of the same last year.
But yeah, I'm in a little bit of, uh, retreat mode because I can't sit here and tell you I feel better about the Falcons in the NFC South than I did.
At any point in the past year, we came into last year with such high hopes, right?
Like, oh wow, Bijon and Pitts in London and all these guys, and I thought we saw a lot of the flaws of the Atlanta Falcons throughout last year.
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Cousins wasn't good for sure, but Pitts obviously just ain't it, like it ain't happening.
Like I I I keep hearing about the breakout every single year and it's just not happening.
The guys around Drake London in a receiver room and not really great.
Dijon's awesome.
And look, if you want to say, I think Michael Pennix is gonna be a star in this league and he's gonna have that second year jump, I can buy it.
I, I can see it, but we, we're basing this off a very small sample size where he looked like you said, Charles, he, he looked good, like he looked promising, but I'm not like that guy's arrived, he's an absolute superstar.
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So, If Pendix makes that big leap and these first round pass rushers fix that issue, OK, I, I can see the Falcons be better, but I'm not betting on that.
I'm, I'm gonna say I feel worse about the Falcons competing for a division title than I did at at any point in the past, uh, you know, 12 months.