NEWSLETTER
While Chicago Bears fans bask in the glow of two highly celebrated top-10 picks, the Atlanta Falcons are straight-up having a weird draft.
First, they selected quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 overall pick. One day later, the Falcons traded up to take defensive lineman Ruke Orhorhoro. Not quite the home run draft picks Atlanta fans were looking forward to seeing this weekend. And that we’re still talking about the Penix pick a day later because it was so puzzling speaks volumes about how unexpected that decision was to see play out. Watching the Falcons draft Penix just one month after the team gave Kirk Cousins a four-year contract worth up to $180 million was bizarre and surreal. But it helped the Bears get wide receiver Rome Odunze with the next pick, so you won’t hear me complain about it.
And yet, I can’t shake the feeling of déjà vu. Especially after seeing this tweet from The Athletic’s Dianna Russini…
… as well as this tweet from Kirk Cousins’ agent:
Sheesh! The Falcons really gave Kirk Cousins the Mike Glennon treatment. Who saw that coming?
Well, maybe we should have…
Why did the Falcons take Michael Penix Jr. in the 2024 NFL Draft? Bears fans know…
The Falcons selection of Penix and their explanation make no sense. I’ve read through it and still struggle to get a grasp on it. Trying to replicate the Green Bay Packers Aaron Rodgers-Jordan Love model isn’t the worst idea. But to do it (1) with a top-10 pick, (2) after paying Kirk Cousins, and (3) with Penix (who is on the older end of the QB prospect spectrum) doesn’t pass the smell test. I tried to talk through it last night. Then I slept on it. I woke up today and spent some time chewing on it. And still, nothing was clicking … until I found myself remembering that I’ve seen this film before and didn’t like the ending.
Given that context of former Bears General Manager Ryan Pace being the Atlanta Falcons Director of Player Personnel, I have been unable to shake how much of the Falcons execution of this misdirection play resembles what the Bears threw out in 2017 when the team selected Mitchell Trubisky with the No. 2 overall pick in that draft. The similarities are uncanny. If you’re not familiar with the story, then consider yourself lucky.
In 2017, then-Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Pace went on a stealth mission to draft North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. To his credit, Pace micromanaged one of the greatest misdirection plays of all-time. And had Pace picked a better quarterback prospect, teamed him with a better head coach, and put some worthwhile pieces around him, it might’ve worked.
If you were following the pre-draft build-up as closely we were, Pace was signaling that the Bears would do anything but draft a quarterback with their first-round pick. There were so many defensive standouts rumored to be on Chicago’s radar that it felt like drafting one was destiny. Even when we allowed ourselves to think that Pace’s Bears might draft a quarterback, it was Deshaun Watson (the team was heavy at his Pro Day) or Patrick Mahomes II (whose agent told reporters the Bears were showing real interest in his client) and not Trubisky.
The Bears ultimately pulled a shocker by trading up with the San Francisco 49ers and drafting Trubisky second overall. The only thing bigger than the shocker there is how Pace kept everyone in the dark. His coaches, assistants, pretty much everyone. Mike Glennon found out about the Bears’ plans to draft his replacement at the same time everyone else who was watching at home did. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. And, until last night, it was something I thought I’d never see again.
In the end, any hare-brained explanation I can cook up would be as logical as the Falcons use of the pick. Maybe this was Ryan Pace being a sleeper agent and gifting the Bears Rome Odunze was the plan all along. Perhaps the Falcons are going to use some wild, two-QB system that no one has ever seen before. New offensive coordinator Zac Robinson is a Sean McVay pupil and those guys always have something up their sleeves. I’m sure someone else has a tin-foil theory that’s worthwhile. And I bet they’ll put it in the comments.
I think the only thing wilder than it happening the first time is that it happened again. Maybe it is just a coincidence that Ryan Pace was in a position of power. Yes, I realize he isn’t calling the shots in Atlanta. But Pace and Falcons General Manager Terry Fontenot worked together with the New Orleans Saints. Considering how Atlanta’s draft plans were kept under wraps, I can’t help but think that Pace had a hand in the process. The similarities are too evident to ignore. It’s almost a word-for-word and bar-for-bar comp with what happened in 2017. An uncanny resemblance!
So while I realize there is a loud contingent of Bears fans who want HBO’s Hard Knocks to show up to Halas Hall this summer, there is a part of me that thinks going down to Atlanta for Falcons camp would make for some tremendous content.
