What is most painful about the news of Michael Penix Jr.’s injury is the undercurrent of finality to a grand experiment. We can sit here and make fun of Falcons GM Terry Fontenot for a building process that felt a little more like a tech startup launch—sweeping hype, flashy objects, visions of the future we only read about in comic books (no Steve Ballmer dancing to the Rolling Stones, as far as I can tell)—but isn’t this what it’s all about? At 3–7, Atlanta’s season is not over, per se, but the idea that this team can be what we dreamt it could is starting to look like it is.
The Falcons are not just falling behind in the NFC South, but falling behind in the world the team created around drafting one outsized talent after another each of the past five years.
