re: Michael Lombardi destroys Falcon's GM

Are you kidding? You really believe the owner, who was in the draft room, didn’t know their #1 pick was going to be Penix? Come on man. And if the GM did go rogue he would have already been fired. Blank didn’t get to his position in life by being scared to make a decision.

They picked Penix because in their view he was the best play at a position of need. End of story. That he may sit for a couple of years is why the “instant gratification” generation is freaking out. There wasn’t a defensive player on the board who was worth a top 8 pick. Defensive players were very weak this year just like QB is going to be very weak next year outside of Beck. All this will come out in the wash. The Falcons will walk away with the South behind Cousins all while the long term QB is maturing.

quote:

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The other reason at quarterback was drafted in the first round because he is black.

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This is just dumb because there is zero evidence the guy's race played any role whatsoever.

While I'm not saying I fully agree with it, here is the logic:

I think what Atlanta did here was hedge their bet on Cousins. They think he will be at least good enough to take Atlanta out of the top 10 draft placement, but they aren't sure he will be good enough to make them a true contender long term. So in what they think will be their last time picking in the top 10 for a while they took a "top 10" QB. If Cousins plays well they will still have the luxury of deciding whether they want to continue paying/extending a (then) 37 year old QB or transitioning to the QB of the future. If Cousins isn't what they want they already have the QB of the future in-house to pivot to and not have to be in that .500 range where they aren't "good", but not bad enough to pick at the top of the draft where a guy like Penix wouldn't be available to them.

Simply put, Penix likely doesn't help their team at all this season. But he's "insurance" for if/when they want to move on from Cousins

The only knock is that they probably could have gotten Penix at 8 without having to spend big on Cousins.