Most Rams fans were rooting for the Atlanta Falcons to beat the 49ers on Sunday night, but instead Mac Jones improved his record to 4-1 and San Francisco stayed in first place. On the bright side, the Falcons dropped to 3-3 and that means that L.A.’s first round pick from Atlanta next year got a little better: Coming close to the midpoint of the season, the Falcons pick is currently situated at 14th overall.
Although the Rams improved their record to 5-2 after destroying the quickly-collapsing Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday morning, they are still in line for a top-20 pick based on how Atlanta has played this season.
Here’s the hard truth facing the Falcons right now: Michael Penix, Jr. does not look like an NFL starter. In his defense, Penix was only making his 9th career NFL start on Sunday night and he was playing a very experienced defensive team in the 49ers.
However, Penix is also 25 already and he’s been starting games above the high school level since 2018. This is his seventh year out of high school and Penix still kind of looks lost and inaccurate. Don’t forget that Penix was a surprising top-10 pick in 2024 and not just because the Falcons had signed Kirk Cousins. Few analysts were predicting Penix as a first round pick after his final college season and almost nobody had him in the top-15 on the eve of the draft. Only when rumors of Atlanta’s interest popped up just before the draft did fans start to picture Michael Penix as a top-10 talent.
Through six games in 2025, Penix does not look like a top-10 talent.
Penix had 241 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions, but it took 38 pass attempts to get there. Through six starts, Penix has just 5 touchdown passes and you have to do more than avoid interceptions to succeed in the NFL. He’s not mobile, he’s not accurate, and he’s not clutch.
What’s more amazing is that Atlanta signed a free agent and drafted a first round in 2024 and yet 18 months later it still looks like the Falcons are searching for a franchise quarterback.
Now why does any of this matter if we’re talking about the Atlanta Falcons and not the Los Angeles Rams?
Because there is still a chance based on how Penix has played — and Raheem Morris not being a proven head coach in any capacity — that the pick that the Falcons send to the Rams in 2026 is going to be top-10, if not top-8. If Penix continues to play this poorly, how long will Morris wait to go to Cousins if he thinks he’s coaching for his job based on Atlanta’s playoff hopes? How long before GM Terry Fontenot wonders what it will take for him to get fired given that he traded a first round pick for edge rusher James Pearce, a player with 0.5 sacks in 6 games.
The Falcons other first round pick, Jalon Walker, has one sack and is injured. Fontenot’s record with the Falcons is 32-42, he’s never had a winning season, had a hand in hiring Morris, drafted Penix, signed Cousins, and traded up for Pearce. How long will Fontenot have a job if the Falcons fall out of the playoff race?
What could cause Morris to “lose the locker room” and lead to an even higher draft pick for the Rams?
The Rams improved their playoff positioning and their draft positioning on the same day on Sunday — the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night — so even though the 49ers stayed in first, it feels like L.A. got a win of a different kind.
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