Michael Penix Jr. looks good.... Is he QB1 ?

Intro as viewers of this channel know I'm a huge Michael penx Jr fan penx Jr played in the Falcon first preseason game against the Dolphins but then sat game two and is going to sit game three which is somewhat of a curious situation we'll talk about that more later in the show but this is my reaction to uh Michael penck Jr first NFL game this is QB unfiltered my take I don't have a slow up no I don't take I got no love for the fak if you want to play tough and want to hate this okay I had Michael penck Jr as the Michael Penix Jr number two quarterback in this past draft behind Jaden Daniels I really felt like uh penck Jr landed in the very best scenario and situation of any of the first round uh picks the six first round quarterback picks in this pass draft going to the Falcons is sort of like going into college for him now and the fact that he's going to uh red shirt his first year maybe and uh grow into the job which is something that's not afforded to a lot of rookie quarterbacks who are throwing into the fire before they're ready to go and it really Jacks with them uh mentally and destroys a lot of quarterbacks before they can even get going in their career but penck Jr is in a situation with the Falcons where he's coming in and he's going to compete with Kirk Cousins the uh the veteran there proven veteran uh for the job which eventually will be uh penck Jr's job uh maybe sooner than later but he's in a situation where he's going to uh grow into the role grow into being an NFL quarterback learn the game from a guy who has proven that he knows what he's doing that's Kirk Cousins and uh get practice reps and get game reps and get ready for when they hand the Reigns over to him uh and he's going to be if he stays healthy he's going to be one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL I believe so before I dive Kirk Cousins into my take reactions to penck Junior's first NFL game let's talk about the somewhat curious situation going on with uh him head coach Raheem Morris and quote unquote starting quarterback Kirk Cousins and their decision not to play penck Jr in preseason games two and three now this is kind of a head scratcher for a lot of people I can see where Atlanta's going with this because this tells me a couple of things number one we really have to ask ourself is Kirk Cousins ready to play you know he's coming off that Achilles uh tendon tear which is a really uh bad injury for a quarterback and um you know he's in his mid-30s uh he's played in the league for a long time and um you don't want your starting quarterback to take unnecessary hits in the preseason I mean Atlanta knows what Kurt Cousins brings to the table he doesn't need to get reps in pre-season to sharpen his game or to tell the coaching staff what he can and can't do they already know that he's a proven commodity uh Michael penck Jr on the other hand I mean they've done their homework they drafted him there was a reason that they drafted him they see him every day in practice so they're able to evaluate him they've had um scrimmages against other NFL teams which replicate uh game reps which I'm telling you those game reps are uh so valuable to a quarterback and so the fact that they've only let Michael Pen's Jr playing in one preseason game that tells me a couple things they're either concerned that Kirk Cousins isn't going to be ready to go when the bell rings uh for the regular season or Michael pen Jr might be their guy um we'll wait and see I mean there may be some other reasons behind this and yes it may be a situation where Atlanta's coaching staff feels like they've seen all they need to see with Michael P Jr in practice in Fall camp and they don't want to run the risk of uh you know something silly happening to him injury-wise in the preseason next I Zack Robinson really like what I'm seeing from new offensive coordinator Zack Robinson now Robinson is uh a pup as far as OC's go this is Robinson's first offensive coordinator job although he uh was in a training ground which I think is one of the best in NFL he was uh the quarterback coach and an assistant coach for Shawn McVey in the LA Rams and McVey you know a young Innovative offensive mind uh does some great things with the Rams offense uh their offensive structure and scheme and Zack Robinson with that under his belt now is moved on to Atlanta and just seeing what he did in penck JR's first game I really really like what I see from this guy you know he said that uh coming into this job that he wanted to create space for the skill guys for Atlanta to play in and man he's doing exactly that so watching just one game with Zach Robinson he's doing that with formations they're spreading the defense out he's releasing five receivers into the route and this is huge okay we've talked about this before anytime you put your running back into the route with a five receiver route defenses have a hell of a time accounting for the back and if you see these clips or any clips that I show College NFL anytime the back releases on a route whether it's a swing a shoot a checkdown an option route whatever he's usually standing all by himself but the other thing that uh release in the back does for Michael penik Jr and what he's so good at doing is it gives him that checkdown route and so when reads one or two aren't there or possibly three penx Jr always has that outlet guy which is his running back and he does a hell of a job of checking the ball down okay Robinson understands spacing concepts with the route schemes so he's stretching the defense from sideline to sideline with the formations but he's really stretching them once the ball's snapped so by releasing those five receivers on the route he is expanding the defensive coverage and opening up huge uh gaps uh real estate patches of grass for receivers to uh sit in and give his quarterbacks uh really easy targets to throw to and then he is running a lot of screens and I'm a big screen guy the screen game does so many things for your offense it's an extension of the Run game it gets the ball to a guy in space let him do something with it it slows the pass rush down it tires defensive linemen out who have to run laterally or chase downfield after screens and it basically just pisses the defense off they easy completions for the quarterback and it's a way to expand the offense and um get the ball into the hands of Playmakers out in space and let them do their thing Staggered Stance now with that being said about Zack Robinson and uh his offensive scheme there's one thing that I don't like that he does with penck Jr and that is his pre- snap stance that he's got him in uh I'm a huge believer in a staggered stance I think as a left-hander your right foot has to be back uh so that you're taking you know you're pushing off you're pivoting on that right foot and that's your push off foot and you're taking your first step with your left foot Robinson's got penx Jr's feet the other way okay so his uh right foot's forward now the reason that he's doing this is the thought process behind this is that first step or that you take in that stance you're able to keep your eyes and head straight ahead or in the ability to easily see from sideline to sideline on either side and he's saying that if you turn sideways on your first step for a left-hander it's hard to see to the right flat and uh I just think in my opinion that's a load of horeshit you know you work your quarterbacks and drills they put their chin on their shoulder and it's very very easy to put my chin on my right shoulder and see not only the cornerback to the right side as a left-handed quarterback but I can see the head coach on the sideline I can see the training staff behind them and the cheerleaders behind the bench so it's all all a matter in what you require your quarterback to do that's another story for another show but what the staggered stance does that they have with penck Jor is when they do as gsts on quick throws grab stab and throw GST grab the snap stab that back foot in the ground and get the ball out it forces penx Jr now to take an extra step so he has to step then stab the back foot in the ground then get the ball out and that extra step is the difference between completing balls to receivers in tight grass or having the ball knocked down because it's getting out of the quarterback's hand late okay let's jump Spacing into this preseason game against the Miami Dolphins here we go all right this first play this is easy this is a spacing concept it's a twom man route uh they in trips the receiver to the right has cheated his split down now and he's running like a little stick route he's going to cross inside the cornerback and just sit and grab pass they release the running back to that side on a swing it's a two-man game easy read for penck Jr if the cornerback sinks down on the stick he throws the swing if the quarterback the cornerback widens with the swing he throws the stick I don't know why more teams don't run this concept this is something that uh the air raid guys in college get and run and really you're playing a team that runs uh Zone coverage you can run this route up and down the field and blow the scoreboard up next play here this is a really nice throw by penx Jr but check out his feet he takes a little brace Step at the end of his drop why does he take this brace step because when he gets to the end of his drop his weight is going back and he has to take this little mini brace step to halt his center of gravity and his weight distribution tion and get it back between his feet and under his shoulders so that he can push off stride and throw well that little uh glitch that little brace step causes him to throw the ball a tick late now if he puts the ball on the receiver it's a catch and a first down but look how close the safety gets to making the play or getting in the play that's the difference between completions and incompletions and especially in the NFL where the DBS can freaking fly so you watch this safety as soon as he sees where penx Jr is going with the ball and he sees the route by that receiver that vertical he just puts his head down and he's gone to the outside to try to get in and make the play if that Ball's out on time the safety can't get close to it but if you've got any type of readjusting your weight distribution your balance to throw the ball that allows him to uh make up ground and possibly get in and make the play he overthrows the Deep out now this was one of my concerns when I talked about penck Jr at udub I said at the time that when he's very very accurate when he has accuracy problems it seems to be on the same types of throws deep outs and Corner routes so anything to the sideline where this could be caused by one of two things number one sometimes I think pen Jr keeps too much weight back on his back foot and when you do that and you're trying to throw the ball on a one uh deeper down field that ball has a tendency to sail on you or the second reason may be that he's just trying to cut loose too much and put too much juice on the Thro throw and again it sales on him either way I've watched a lot of penck Jr games and when he misses guys a lot of those throws are on outbreaking routes okay on this same play now I want you to check the uh running back remember we talked about checkdowns always standing by themselves check out the running back here on the checkdown and then I also want you to check out the press release by the outside receiver down here to the right uh that's how you get out on your route cleanly and catch a lot of balls by not getting jammed up on the line of scrimmage by a press corner so real quick foot fire a nod to the outside and an inside release and it's uh see you later okay next play this is a Michael penck Jr trait when his primary receiver is not there he snaps his eyes and he deals it to his backside receivers now there is a number of starting quarterbacks in the NFL that do not do this and there's a couple of first round selections in this past draft at quarterback that didn't do this and couldn't do this in college penck Jr did this in every game he played for the udub Huskies and this is an example of why Tom Brady was such a great quarterback among all the other great skills he had Tom Brady ran the offense meaning if your playside gu is not there snap snap your eyes to your backside reads and just run the offense the way it's intended to be run deal the ball to your receivers and let them make plays and look how fast penx Jr goes from playside to snap eyes knowing where your receiver is going to be this white out does a great job of sitting in grass and it's boom and it's playing catch and this is easy for penck Jr okay now on this play here penck Jr stands in there this is part of a quarterback's job deliver the ball and take a hit all right he stands in there he's got a guy coming off the edge unblocked he knows he's going to get whacked and he puts the ball out there and gives his receiver a chance to make a play now he overthrows it it's incompletion and he gets his ass kicked this is Michael penck Jr's fault and this was confirmed by head coach Raheem Morris in the postgame comments where uh defensively Miami has got this ghost uh standup guy to the left you've got to get your protection going that way they should have been sorting left here uh that guy should have been blocked they're just sending Five Guys uh this is on pennick Jr he missed the check he didn't get the protection changed and got his butt kicked because of it and they missed a touchdown that's a learning experience for him but this is what happened on that play okay uh we Screen talked about screens uh look how easy this is little running back slip screen now the key to this play is that you don't tip off the defense that you're running screen you can go from high school to college to the NFL you've got offensive guys that tip when screens are coming whether it's offens defensive linemen running backs or quarterbacks they do a good job here of not only at being a quicker developing screen but they really don't tip what's going on and you can tell that you can tell that they don't tip it by how the defense reacts once the ball's snapped if you've got defensive linemen that are coming up field with their ears pined back they're not smelling screen if you've got linebackers that aren't screen towards the screen guy they're not smelling screen and the other thing that I want you to notice on here watch penck Jr fade away from this throw after he makes it why is he doing that every time your quarterback throws a screen you've got defensive linemen that fairly quickly during that play are going to be unblocked and coming right at the QB so you always want to teach your quarterback deliver the ball and fade away from from it so that you absorb the hit so that you roll with it I always told my quarterbacks you want to look like a guy that fell out of the back of a pickup truck going down Highway 101 in Northern California throw the screen fade back get whacked roll absorb the hit what you don't want as a quarterback plant your feet stri into the throw get hit especially down low and now you're talking about knee injuries and just bad things happening okay uh love this all Checkdown right checking the ball down now we can't see the deeper routes they've got two receivers that are running basic uh you know flat type routes to where they're widening defensive guys and there's your running back on the checkdown pennx JR this is so subtle and most people watching these games don't notice this stuff but look at the great pocket management takes his drop he's got his reads downfield we don't see what those routes are so we can't see what's going on there but he doesn't like it that means coverage has got in depth underneath those guys and based on how open the checkdown is those guys got a lot of depth but penck Jr now uh senses some pressure and he steps up and as he steps up in the pocket he also turns that ball to protect it because you always got defense lineman they're trying to swipe their paws at the ball and if you've got sloppy ball carriage and ball security that's when you see fumbles in the pocket and that's not a good situation so uh look what penx Jr does here he plays catch and all they're doing is moving the sticks by throwing a little dinky check down and letting the back run it's an eight- yard gain kudos to Michael penck Jr okay this last clip I want to show you there's three things now going on in this play that I don't like and I hate to end this on a negative clip but we're going to do it anyway okay now you're throwing the Deep out uh penx Jr does not need to take the hitch Step at the end of this drop what he should be doing I mean he's keying that route he sees how tight that coverage is you also know uh one of the things that I'm always preaching here on this channel the most opener receiver is going to be at any route is at the top of his stem so on this out route as soon as that receiver sticks that toe and starts to break it to the outside that's the most he's going to be open if penck Jr Just Hits that last step in his drop and fires it he's got the space to catch the ball get tackled but it's a 10 yard completion by taking that hitch step and then throwing it he allows that DB to close the gap on a receiver that may not have been running the world's greatest route which is my second point I want to make uh when you're running routes as receivers you have got to sell the vertical watch how this DB just sits and flatfoots it because this slot receiver isn't selling the fact that he's going deep and running by him so he starts to slow down he raises his helmet level a little bit starts to chop his feet too early and too much and this guy just sits on it all right and then the last thing with this play and this was kind of surprising to me and again you don't know where the breakdown is here is it scheme or is it a mental bust by uh a player but watch what happens with their pass protection here so um they're running a little twist and who ends up blocking the guy that's wrapping around and coming it's the running back so you've got a running back pass blocking a defensive lineman and you've got an offensive lineman not blocking anybody so if you get a fiveman rush you want your five offensive linemen getting their five hats on those five dudes you don't want to have an offensive lineman not blocking anybody and have your running back have to block a d lineman all right not a good scenario all right so this is uh one NFL game for Michael penik Jr and I think he played it with a lot of confidence and a lot of poise he made great decisions he really looked like a guy who's got a really good handle on what they're doing and I think the coaches feel the same way and maybe that's why we're not seeing him in game two and game three of the preseason it's going to be interesting to see what happens when they line up in the first regular season game whether it's going to be cousins or whether it's going to be penck Jr I think Atlanta feels really good with what they've got with rookie Michael penik Jr okay if you like Today's Show please hit the like button that helps me out a ton and if you like listening to uh me talk about give my take my analysis on playing the absolute toughest position to play in all his Sports the quarterback position please subscribe to QB unfiltered let me know in the comments what you think of Michael penik Jr his first and only game so far in the NFL and let me know what you think going on with uh Kirk Cousins all right this has been my take QB unfiltered and remember always throw the ball short to guys who can score see [Music] you if you want to play tough and want to hate thisth show up [Music]