This morning, after the inaugural day of the 2024 NFL Draft, allow me to be the first Nebraska football fan to extend a big congratulations to Washington for owning the most laughable selection in quite some time.
No, it’s not actually fair to the Huskies or Michael Penix to blame them for what the Atlanta Falcons did on Thursday night. Quite the contrary as the talented quarterback and the last school he attended would probably rather not be the butt of quite so many jokes last night and today.
But the fact of the matter is that the Falcons selected Penix sixth overall in last night’s first round of the NFL Draft despite having just signed veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins to a massive free-agent deal with two years of guaranteed money.
That means that there’s almost no chance that the Falcons are going to get rid of cousins until after the 2025 season. They’re not going to bench a guy making $100 million guaranteed.
Normally, saying that a young quarterback is going to sit for two years (even if he’s the number 8 pick in the draft) isn’t totally out of the question. But Penix is not all that young. He’s 24 years old today. He’ll be 26 when Cousins’ guaranteed money is off the books. He’ll be 28 by the time Cousins’ contract is over.
Nebraska football rival owns most laughable 2024 NFL Draft selection in quite some time
It should be said that if Washington, Penix and their fans were hoping to put this thing behind them, the Falcons’ GM didn’t do themselves any favors.
"If you believe in a quarterback, you have to take him," general manager Terry Fontenot told reporters. "And if he sits for four or five years, that's a great problem to have because we're doing so well at that position.
What Fontenot is saying here is that the best scenario here would be the Falcons throwing away the 8th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. The worst scenario is that Kirk Cousins is awful or injured and Penix starts earlier than that.
Next time, Fontenot should just come out and say he couldn’t handle the pressure of having that high a pick. He’d have done of the newest Nebraska football rivals in the Big Ten a favor if he said that before Thursday night and let some one else handle the job. Penix and Washington wouldn’t have to see the star quarterback the laughing stock of social media that way.