FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Kaden Elliss was licking his chops going into training camp last year. The Atlanta Falcons' inside linebacker knew a rookie, first-round pick Michael Penix Jr., was running the second-team offense.
In camp practices, the Falcons typically have the first-team defense face the second-team offense, and vice versa. And for Elliss, Penix would be a sacrificial lamb for the Atlanta defense while he got up to speed on the NFL.
"I was like, 'Yes, I'm about to get my hands on a bunch of interceptions -- I'm about to make a bunch of big plays,'" Elliss said.
Then, something weird happened. Penix operated like a veteran, rarely making errant throws, airing out passes down the field and keeping his interceptions to a minimum.
"I didn't get him once all training camp, and he just didn't do ill-advised things, but he still let his arm talent show every single day," Elliss said. "And there's a lot of guys with amazing arm talent that may be on a couch, that aren't starting in the NFL, that can make every throw ... but who can't blend letting their arm talent shine while also playing smart, and Penix does both in such an amazing way."
The Falcons surprised the league when they drafted Penix at No. 8 in 2024 after already having signed veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins to a $100 million guaranteed contract weeks earlier. But the organization knew it had something in Penix early, and there hasn't been any regret since.
Penix took over for a struggling Cousins late last season. There have been ups and downs during his seven career starts, though the main throughline has been his calm under pressure and ability to battle back from adversity. This week, Penix will make his first start on "Monday Night Football" against the Buffalo Bills, who are yielding the second-fewest passing yards per game (154.0). He has done nothing to make the Falcons' coaching staff or front office believe he is not up to the task.
"I feel great with Mike in every game," Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. ... "I think these games are huge.
"It's fun to watch, it's fun to be a part of. It's fun to watch these guys grow and develop, and I've got the utmost confidence in Mike."
In Week 3, Penix had his worst performance. He threw two interceptions, including his first career pick-six, in a 30-0 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Penix rebounded in a major way two weeks ago, leading the Falcons to a 34-27 win over the Washington Commanders. He was 20-of-26 passing for a career-high 313 yards with 2 touchdowns and an interception.
"That is the telltale sign for quarterbacks: how you respond," Morris said. "It doesn't go your way, it's not absolutely what you want it to look like in the game, and you have to respond and play better -- and obviously, you've got to play better around him -- but how do you respond?
"And I loved his practice response. I loved his verbal response to his team. I loved his response in the game, and I loved his response of knowing it's a process and I love how he reacted to the criticism. I love how he reacted to everything."
PENIX TRANSFERRED TO Tampa Bay Technical High School in the spring of his sophomore year. The football team already had an established starting quarterback, so Penix began as a third-stringer.
That lasted "two-and-a-half, maybe three practices," according to Tampa Bay Tech coach Jayson Roberts.
"I think the first time he threw the deep out from the opposite hash to the sideline and it got there on a rope and almost broke the receiver's fingers, we all kind of looked at each other," Roberts told ESPN. "This is different."
Penix has spent almost his entire time in football trying to prove himself and dealing with adversity. In six college seasons, with Indiana and Washington, he had four season-ending injuries, including a pair of torn ACLs. Penix returned as a senior at Washington and took the team to the national championship game. He led the nation in passing yards (4,903) and finished second in Heisman voting, the highest ever for a Huskies player.
After he was drafted by the Falcons, he was on the bench again -- behind Cousins -- and it seemed like that was where he would stay for the foreseeable future. Atlanta general manager Terry Fontenot said on draft night that Penix could sit for "four or five years" if Cousins was excelling.
Penix was supposed to learn from Cousins during those years, then become the starter down the road, a plan the team described as the "Green Bay model." As it turned out, the transition came sooner than most thought.
After leading the Falcons to a 6-3 start, their best since their 2016 Super Bowl season, Cousins faltered in November and December. Cousins led the NFL in interceptions (16) and fumbles (12, tied with Baker Mayfield) when he was benched Dec. 16.
A five-game stretch with nine interceptions and just one touchdown pass ultimately prompted Morris to sit Cousins and start Penix "moving forward."
Penix led the Falcons past the New York Giants in his first start and then guided a game-tying, fourth-quarter drive against the Washington Commanders in Week 17. Penix's first career touchdown pass was a laser to tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. on a fourth-and-13 to tie the score with 1:17 left in regulation. Atlanta lost that game in overtime to all but squash its playoff hopes, but Penix put his team in position to win it.
"Poised," Falcons wide receiver Darnell Mooney said, describing Penix at the end of regulation. "Just comfort. Didn't really get stressed at any moment. He was ready."
Penix ran the scout team offense throughout the 2024 season before getting the starting role. During one practice, then-defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake threw an exotic blitz at him. The cornerback pressured from a unique position. Penix, a left-hander, saw it and fired a 15-yard strike outside the numbers for a first down.
"And he looked to the sideline, and he says, 'Oh, don't do that, Coach Lake -- don't do that,'" Lake said. ... "He started laughing, and that's a moment that I remember where I was like, 'OK, he can see it.' And obviously the talent, he can rip this ball anywhere across the field."
The arm talent jumps off the page. It's what every scout was talking about heading into the draft. But what Lake noticed was something former Indiana coach Tom Allen saw in Penix from an early age, right out of Tampa Bay Tech.
"We thought we had a special player when we got him and, when he got there, he just had a lot of physical talent, and it showed up early in practice, just being able to make a lot of throws that a lot of guys can't make at that age," said Allen, who is now Clemson's defensive coordinator. "But the thing that impressed me was just processing, and I think that's something that stuck out this whole time with us, and it continues to show strong and that is the ability to analyze defenses, make quick decisions mentally and just really know where to take the ball and read coverages."
Penix's demeanor helps him do that. Morris joked that Penix is "not going to die from a heart attack."
When Atlanta offensive coordinator Zac Robinson called Penix on Dec. 16, 2024, to tell him he would be the team's starter, Penix was shopping at Costco with his then-girlfriend (and now fiancée) Olivia Carter. Penix said he was about to buy a hot dog, but when he received the news, he wasn't hungry anymore. That's about as much excitement as he shows.
Kalen DeBoer, Penix's former coach at Washington and now the coach at Alabama, said that poise comes from the hardships Penix has overcome, including those season-ending injuries.
"Just really steady," DeBoer said. "He was good in the big moments. I think that's a lot of just his personality. I think there's a lot of experiences he went through where he just understands that adversity is going to come and that handling it the right way and kind of predetermining your response and what that's going to be.
"He's learned a lot with everything he's been through."
PENIX PLAYED FOUR sports -- football, basketball, baseball, and track and field -- in high school. He's 6-foot-2 and has a vertical jump of 36½ inches. Tampa Bay Tech went undefeated in the one season Penix played hoops.
"It was a freaking highlight," Roberts said. "We had packed gyms because everybody wanted to see Mike catch alley-oops and dunk on people. ... I think probably the part of his game most underrated is just how much of a freak athlete he is."
Penix, 24, ran a sub-4.6-second 40-yard dash at his pro day in March 2024, and he said he can run one in the 4.4s. But that's a part of Penix's game he'd rather not exhibit.
Roberts said he and his coaching staff had to trick Penix to display his wheels when he was a senior. At the time, Penix was committed to Tennessee, and Roberts told him that coaches from the school were coming to his next game and wanted to see his mobility.
Volunteer coaches were coming to the game, but they weren't as concerned about Penix's legs as Roberts made it seem. The talk generated the desired result, though.
"After we kind of put that in his head, I think the first time we dropped back to pass and nobody was immediately open, he pulled it down and went like 80 yards for a touchdown," Roberts said.
Penix showed in Week 1 this season that he can make plays with his feet when needed. He scrambled twice in the fourth quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on fourth down, once for a first down and the second time for a touchdown that put the Falcons ahead 20-17.
Like in the game against the Commanders last season, the Falcons didn't execute down the stretch to get the victory. But that changed in victories over the Vikings and Commanders this season. The only one of Penix's seven starts so far that he hasn't put the Falcons in position to win was against the Panthers in Week 3, a shutout loss that Morris described as "nasty" and "disgusting."
For the first time on an NFL field, Penix was visibly frustrated, slinging the ball into the grass on more than one occasion after a broken play or penalty. His headset audio was going in and out. Nothing went right. The Falcons fired wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard after the brutal loss and moved Zac Robinson to the sideline from the coaching box to call plays.
But, more than anything, the criticism was on Penix. Maybe he was not the franchise quarterback the Falcons had hoped for and deemed him to be.
Rather than sulking, Penix returned to the team's facility with a swagger in his step the next day. All-Pro safety Jessie Bates III said Penix apologized multiple times to the team's defense. Morris knew immediately that Penix -- and the Falcons -- would be fine. And they were, beating the Commanders thanks to Penix's bounce-back performance.
"We all are here for a reason, and something that [quarterbacks coach] DJ [Williams] told me, it was like, 'Just be yourself,'" Penix said. "Don't go out there and feel like you've got to be Superman and try to do everything. At the end of the day, we're all here for a reason, and we just got to believe in that and just go out there, execute and we'll be all good."
The Falcons are more than happy with Penix being himself. That's why they drafted him as high as they did, why they're so confident in his continued development and why Morris has been "enamored" with him since he came through the door.
"I don't want to sit here and say I showed other people something about me or about this team, but it is all about us, man," Penix said after the Week 4 win. "It is not always going to be perfect. Like I said, I feel like I showed myself that I deserve to be here and I belong."
Week 6 marks Penix's first start on "Monday Night Football." And the Falcons are more than happy to be riding into battle with him under that spotlight against one of the NFL's elite teams.
"I'm so glad he's our quarterback," Elliss said, "and I know he can take us as far as we want to go."