Penix Jr. pick leads to more questions than answers for Falcons GM Fontenot

There is “no in-between” for Falcons GM Terry Fontenot after he “took a huge gamble by spending a high draft pick on a player who isn’t likely to have much value for the Falcons this season and, maybe never,” according to Michael Cunningham of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. It is a “big gamble for Fontenot.” He has “done well in three precious drafts.” It could turn out he is a “visionary” for drafting QB Michael Penix Jr. Right now, “he’s looking shortsighted.” The Falcons “need to win now,” and Fontenot’s top draft pick “won’t help them do that unless something goes wrong” with the $100M QB Kurt Cousins (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 4/25).

GUESSING GAME: In Buffalo, Ryan O’Halloran wrote the Falcons “threw the only true curveball.” O’Halloran: “Did general manager Terry Fontenot forget that he bid against himself last month to sign quarterback Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract?” Atlanta “could have gone, well, any other direction to give itself a chance for instant success.” This “isn’t an indictment of Penix,” it is an “indictment of the Falcons.” It makes it “look like they’re guessing” (BUFFALO NEWS, 4/25). YAHOO SPORTS’ Dan Wetzel wrote Penix arrives in Atlanta “amid puzzlement” -- a “possible long-term solution for a team everyone thought was focused on short-term goals like winning the NFC South.” The “big-money free agent is in place for now.” The top-10 pick, which could have “bolstered the team on the field each Sunday, is gone.” Questions and doubts “will loom” (YAHOO SPORTS, 4/26).