The Atlanta Falcons' 2025 season was over before December even began, with a series of disheartening losses making it clear that this remains a cursed franchise. Perhaps most maddening of all this season's developments is the quarterback questions that simply refuse to leave a franchise that so willingly jettisoned Matt Ryan. There is no need to make Falcons fans walk back through the frustrating list of starters the team endured in the seasons after making the ill-fated decision.
However, this was supposed to be the year that all of that changed, the ascension of Michael Penix Jr. as the next face of Atlanta. Instead, the quarterback was just good enough to show promise but not to provide a defining answer before suffering a knee injury that ended his 2025 season. Now, the Falcons are stuck watching Kirk Cousins attempt to make an argument for the starting job in the final weeks of the 2025 season.
All of this paints a rather bleak offseason picture for a franchise that clearly needs to part ways with current leadership and find a fresh start. Still, even the right coach and GM aren't going to take away the fact that there are still going to be huge questions facing the future of the franchise at the quarterback position.
Falcons' QB Questions Persist After Disastrous 2025 Season
Going into the season, the one concern with Penix was an extremely consistent injury history at the college level. It is why the incredible arm talent was still available when Atlanta's number was called in the 2024 draft. Now, you don't know the exact timetable of Penix's return and have even more reason to wonder if the signal caller can stay upright. This, aside from the obvious of whether the quarterback is even talented enough to be a franchise answer.
In the middle of all of this, you have Cousins entering the third year of a four-year deal that the Falcons handed the veteran ahead of drafting Penix. Add in the fact that Atlanta sacrificed its 2026 first-round pick to add James Pearce Jr., and it is hard to see a way out of the quarterback questions that have plagued the franchise for the last four years.
Even free agency offers few interesting answers, with Jacoby Brissett, Malik Willis, and Joe Flacco being the most intriguing bridge options. This speaks to the position the Falcons have put themselves in and the remaining hope that Penix can return to health and be the star he has the clear potential to be.
Otherwise, the Falcons are going to continue to flounder even if the franchise somehow managed to hire a capable coach and GM. This leaves Atlanta fans yet again frustrated and disillusioned with a franchise that simply cannot get out of its own way.