Anti-Penix Reaction on Draft Night Was Over the Top

Critics blasted Atlanta for taking the UW quarterback at No. 8.

Michael Penix Jr. launches his end zone pass to Devin Culp at USC. / David Sizer

When Michael Penix Jr. heard his name called out on Thursday night in the NFL Draft -- as the No. 8 pick for the Atlanta Falcons -- he quickly got to his feet with a big smile on his face and began hugging family members back in Florida, where he chose to watch his pro football career unfold.

It was a crowning moment for a University of Washington quarterback who had bounced back from the abyss of four season-ending injuries at Indiana to just missing out on winning the Heisman Trophy and coming up a victory short of claiming a CFP national championship and a perfect season for the Huskies.

A top 10 draft pick for him was a next step forward in his alternately tragic and glorious football journey, from a human being left crumpled across the Midwest landscape to one standing so upright as the Falcons seemingly gave him validation he was someone special.

Except at that very instance, not everyone was sold on this particular draft development. Keyboards everywhere began clicking furiously and spitting out vitriol over Atlanta's decision to choose Penix to guide the franchise at some point.

Consternation was everywhere, with no one more put off by the draft pick than Bleacher Report's Brent Sobleski. Consider his no-holds-barred take on this pressing pro football matter.

Taking Penix at No. 8 is awful resource allocation. It's also downright atrocious value. The Bleacher Report Scouting Department didn't even have Penix graded as a first-round prospect. This is a failure on every single level. Grade: F

The thing is Sobleski was not alone in casing aspersions over the Penix pick. No other media outlet gave it a grade higher than a C-. People called it the surprise of the first night, if not the biggest mistake made.

Granted, they readily could have criticized the former Husky quarterback for his garish choice in sunglasses -- sort of a cartoonish, white-framed model -- yet to continue to belittle his football skills just seems odd.

Yes, Penix is a little unconventional as this loose-limbed lefty throwing from all kinds of oddball angles, delivering off his back foot and acting a little jumpy at times.

Yet what some people don't realize is he's an acquired quarterback taste, someone to be seen up close and appreciated over time, especially in the closing moments with the game on the line.

Early in Penix's UW stay, a Husky fan on social media absolutely ridiculed the quarterback's arm strength basically while watching from the edge of his couch. An invitation was extended for him to come to practice and see the QB's velocity up close, to have one of those blistering pass attempts whiz past his head and maybe change his mind.

Penix has a most deceptive fastball, sort of like Dennis Quaid's pitcher portrayal in the film "The Rookie." People have to keep checking their Jugs guns.

The analysts probably will tell you they have nothing personal against Penix, just the Falcons for drafting him so high after signing veteran Kirk Cousins to a $100 million guaranteed deal, which seems like gross mismanagement to them, and for screwing up all their mock drafts.

What they can't comprehend is how Penix might turn out to be a very productive NFL quarterback, someone who either replaces an aging Cousins or an injured Cousins, sooner than later, depending on what comes first.

The Falcons were blasted for stockpiling quarterbacks. Yet the Atlanta front office might say you can never have too many great players at any one position, especially behind center, if the opportunity arises to stack them.

Penix, as fellow Husky first-rounders Rome Odunze and Troy Fautanu will tell you, is a masterful leader in the huddle, someone with an unappreciated arm, a guy who will leave it all out on the field until something in his knee or shoulder is badly broken.

And if Penix does succeed in the NFL, not one of his critics on draft night will cop to their knee-jerk analyses, to all of those failing grades, to all of that misplaced outrage.

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