Mark Wiedmer
The Future.
Aren’t the Atlanta Falcons always looking to the future, which could be wholly understandable given their ridiculously mediocre to morose present and past?
To be fair, the Falcons are rarely Detroit Lions bad, the oldest franchise in the league to never reach the Super Bowl, having imploded just last season after reaching halftime of the NFC title game against San Francisco with a double-digit lead.
Actually, maybe the Falcons are worse. They’ve reached two Super Bowls and lost them both in rather ignominious and embarrassing fashion.
If you don’t remember the first, a few hours after safety Eugene Robinson was handed the Athletes in Action/Bart Starr Award for being the NFL player who best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home,on the field and in the community, he was arrested for soliciting a prostitute in Miami less than 24 hours before Super Bowl XXXIII kicked off against the Denver Broncos.
Talk about giving a whole new meaning to their popular moniker that year: “The Dirty Birds.”
You may also remember that Robinson was later burned for an 80-yard touchdown catch by Denver’s Rod Smith and later missed a tackle leading to a long Terrell Davis run in that 34-19 loss.
The Falcons’ next Super Bowl more than 15 years later saw Atlanta lead the New England Patriots 28-3 … and LOSE!!! It’s the greatest collapse in Super Bowl history.
You almost wish they were Detroit, just so you wouldn’t have those Super Bowl memories.
But this past Thursday night in Detroit, with the 8th pick of the NFL Draft, the most overblown event in American sports, the Falcons outdid themselves. A mere 43 days after signing former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins to a deal that included $100 million of guaranteed money, the Falcons drafted 24-year-old University of Washington quarterback Michael Penix with the No. 8 pick in the Draft.
If you were a team that only needed a backup quarterback, that might not have seemed like such an outrageous pick. Cousins is 36 years old, has had his injury issues in the past, has not exactly produced in the playoffs.
But the Falcons need help almost everywhere. Especially in the defensive backfield. So to help on the other side of the ball, they draft a quarterback No. 1.
Then their general manager, Terry Fontenot, gives the following vague, almost disjointed reason for not drafting a defensive back: “We would have liked to add that position, but you don’t want to force a reach or do something you shouldn’t.”
Huh?
HUH?
Eugene Robinson once did something he shouldn’t have. The whole Falcons team did something it shouldn’t have against the Patriots.
What Fontenot did was to NOT do something he should have, which was attempt to find a NFL caliber starting cornerback.
You can take the high road and hope this all works out. Cousins is productive and remains healthy for the next couple of years while Penix remains patient as an understudy until it’s time for Cousins to hang up his cleats.
Maybe through trades and acquisitions, the defensive secondary improves under new coach Raheem Morris. And while Fontenot seemed to ignore the biggest need to shore up the secondary, Atlanta did draft defensive players in rounds 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7. They just weren’t defensive backs. None of them. Apparently that would have been a reach or doing something they shouldn’t have.
But they’ll theoretically have the best backup quarterback in the league through the draft and certainly the oldest rookie QB in the league playing behind a $100 million 36-year-old QB. And that could play well in the future.
And there’s always this, voiced over the weekend by Fontenot: “We are very excited about Kirk and this team. Michael Penix, we’re talking about the future … the big picture.”
ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. took one look at the little picture of this past weekend’s draft and handed them a grade of C, the worst grade he gave any of the 32 teams.
Yet now it’s done. The Falcons have once more embraced the Back to the Future blueprint. Atlanta fans have seen that movie before. Too, too many times. It’s time, past time, to give them reason to feel good about the precious present.