The Atlanta Falcons don't have much of a reason to dive into the quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft, as rising second-year pro Michael Penix Jr. is set as the franchise's future under center.
Still, Atlanta's scouts and personnel directors will evaluate and rank the quarterbacks, in part because of due dilligence but also to better understand the next crop of passers entering the league.
And when the Falcons finish their process, they very well could feel vincidcated in their decision to draft Penix at No. 8 overall last April.
On a conference call with reporters Thursday, NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said he had a higher grade on Penix last year than he does Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders this season. Sanders is widely viewed as a projected top 10, if not top 5, pick.
Jeremiah had Penix as his sixth-best quarterback entering the 2024 draft, falling behind the Chicago Bears' Caleb Williams, the New England Patriots' Drake Maye, the Washington Commanders' Jayden Daniels, the Minnesota Vikings' J.J. McCarthy and the Denver Broncos' Bo Nix.
Miami quarterback Cam Ward, who's considered the top signal caller in the 2025 class, is graded similarly to Nix on Jeremiah's board.
The Falcons chose Penix for several reasons, spearheaded by their belief that they wouldn't be picking in the top 10 again. Despite missing the playoffs, their feelings proved accurate, as they'll pick 15th this April.
Head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot wanted to address their future in a deep quarterback class, one that has already delivered positive returns for several franchises, including Atlanta.
The Falcons faced immense criticism after drafting Penix in large part due to having signed four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract a month and a half before. But Cousins, who struggled in his final five starts, was benched for Penix after Week 15.
And now, Atlanta appears well-off with Penix, who had an impressive three-game stint of starts to close his rookie campaign and would be rated similarly to the quarterbacks who are expected to fly off the board come April 24.
The lesson? As Fontenot said the night the Falcons chose Penix: if teams believe in a quarterback, they have to take them -- and Atlanta should be glad it did.
"When you really study the drafts and the history, there's years that there's none, there's years that there's a couple," Fontenot said. "At the end of the day, if you believe in a player at that position -- because if we're all sitting here a few years from now, and this guy's playing pretty good for somebody regardless of the situation, you sit back and look and we pass them up, you can't do it."
