Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. will be placed on injured reserve after sustaining a left-knee injury during the team’s Week 11 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers. The injury will keep him out for at least four of the remaining seven games this season.
“Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. suffered a left-knee injury in Sunday’s game against Carolina,” the team said in a statement released Monday. “We are working through the medical process to determine the severity of the injury. He will be placed on the reserve/injured list and miss a minimum of four games. With the move, Kirk Cousins will assume the starting quarterback role for the Falcons at this time.”
Head coach Raheem Morris told reporters that Penix would seek a second opinion on his knee Tuesday and confirmed his placement on injured reserve. “Mike will go to IR,” Morris said. “Don’t have any further information on some of those types of things, but just putting out that he’ll go to IR. So that will be at least a four-week deal. If anything comes up after that, obviously you’ve got some second opinions, and there will be a bunch of different things that have to go on over the (course of the next couple of days) and figure out what else that is.”
Penix was injured in the third quarter as Atlanta led 21-16, following a tackle by Carolina safety Tre’von Moehrig after an incomplete pass attempt. He was slow to get up and was taken directly to the medical tent.
Kirk Cousins replaced Penix for the rest of Sunday’s game, which ended with Atlanta losing 30-27. Before exiting due to injury, Penix completed 13 of 16 passes for 175 yards; Cousins went six for 14 with 48 yards passing.
“Hurting for the young man, especially with how well he was playing at the beginning of that football game, really finding his groove,” Morris said about Penix’s performance prior to being sidelined. “I liked his week of preparation. I like the way he went through everything. I like how he was prepared at a very high level. I like how he took a lot of ownership on it last week and really was ready to have a bounce-back week. It’s heartbreaking for him to go out and get hurt.”
The Falcons selected Penix eighth overall in the 2024 NFL Draft with expectations he would become their future starter at quarterback while veteran Kirk Cousins started initially as Penix developed as a rookie.
However, plans changed late last season when Cousins was benched due to performance issues in Week 16; Penix then started Atlanta’s final three games and continued as starter into this year.
In nine appearances this season—he missed one game due to another knee issue—Penix has completed just over sixty percent of his passes with an average exceeding two hundred twenty yards per game along with nine touchdowns against three interceptions.
With Penix now sidelined again by injury, Cousins steps back into starting duties moving forward.
“He’ll go through all the rotations this week,” Morris said regarding Cousins’ preparation ahead of Sunday’s matchup against New Orleans Saints at Caesars Superdome.”He’ll go through everything that we need to get done in order for him to go out there and get a win for the football team.”
Cousins has made one start so far this year (completing twenty-one passes from thirty-one attempts) and also appeared briefly earlier in relief work.
