Michael Penix Jr.'s challenging second season is over.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a partially torn left ACL he suffered in Sunday's loss to the Carolina Panthers, the team announced Wednesday.
In corresponding roster moves, Atlanta will sign Easton Stick to the active roster and add Kyle Trask to its practice squad, coach Raheem Morris told reporters.
Penix was placed on injured reserve, which sidelines a player a minimum of four games, earlier this week as the Falcons said they were "working through the medical process to determine the severity of the injury."
Wednesday's news means Penix's season ends nine games into a tumultuous campaign that produced encouraging moments as well as ugly displays. The quarterback completed 60.1 percent of his passes for 1,982 yards and a 9-3 TD-INT ratio, but never quite established reliable consistency in his play, peaking in Atlanta's 34-27 win over Washington in Week 4, which came exactly one week after the worst showing of his career in a 30-0 loss to the Panthers in Charlotte, N.C.
"We feel really confident (he will come back stronger)," Morris said. "No doubt, Mike is going to attack this rehab to get back to this team."
What does this mean for Falcons' outlook for rest of 2025?
The Falcons were already facing a steep, if not impossible climb out of the 3-7 hole in which they've buried themselves this season before news of Penix's injury and subsequent surgery broke Wednesday. After upsetting the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football in Week 6, Atlanta lost its identity, scoring just 10 points each in Weeks 7 and 8 and failing to finish close contests in the subsequent three games. All five have resulted in losses, sending the Falcons into a tailspin with no clear exit in sight.
Kirk Cousins exists as a highly paid backup and should be expected to handle starting duties for as long as he is capable of doing so this season. That doesn't mean the Falcons aren't bracing for further offensive devolvement; in Cousins' relief appearance in Week 11, he completed just 6 of 14 passes as Atlanta's offense disappeared in the second half, opening the door for a Panthers comeback victory.
The additions of Stick and Trask give Atlanta additional options, though fans shouldn't expect to see either unless Cousins cannot play or struggles so much that Morris has no choice but to turn to another signal-caller.
As for Morris, well, things were already looking bleak before we learned Penix would miss the rest of the season. In a year in which the Falcons largely went all-in on their hopes of reaching the playoffs, they've flopped under Morris. Their defense has improved in some stretches, but their offense has proved to be frustratingly inconsistent, with star running back Bijan Robinson disappearing from the game plan in some weeks. Morris might not yet be on the hot seat, but his offensive coordinator, Zac Robinson -- a play-caller who has seemed determined to force Penix into his awkward fit of an offensive scheme -- undoubtedly is.
With this in mind, the rest of 2025 becomes an audition for the coaching staff. Can they band together and direct their team to competitive showings despite not having their top quarterback available? Or is this the beginning of the end for this regime? Time will tell.
How does this change Atlanta's offseason approach?
Morris said it himself Wednesday: The Falcons have received a harsh dose of reality that will force them to adjust accordingly in 2026.
"100 percent," Morris said, via the team's official site, when asked if Penix's injury will change their approach to the new league year. "You definitely got to go out and make some different plans when you talk about the offseason. ... Right now, we gotta prepare for the Saints."
Penix's timetable for return nudges him up against the start of the 2026 season, meaning the Falcons will need a viable backup plan in case Penix suffers a setback in his recovery. In order to do so, they'll likely either need to accept Cousins is their next best option or commit to moving on from him at what could be an expensive cost.
Cousins' bloated contract carries a $57 million cap hit into 2026 -- a number well beyond the upper limit for a backup -- and would account for $35 million in dead cap if the Falcons cut him before June 1. If Atlanta can find a willing trade partner for a quarterback who suddenly looks very much like the 38-year-old he'll be in August, the Falcons can save $32.5 million in cap space via a pre-June 1 trade, a number that improves to $45 million after June 1.
Such a deal will likely require additional assets to sweeten it. The Falcons already surrendered their 2026 first-round pick in order to trade back into the first round of the 2025 draft and select Tennessee edge rusher James Pearce Jr., diminishing their available capital and dealing another significant blow to this nightmarish season, one that won't even provide them with a valuable top pick in April.
No matter how you slice it, 2025 is quickly proving to be a disastrous year for Atlanta.
What does this mean for Penix's future?
Penix has a well-documented injury history that stretches back to his college days spent at Indiana, where he suffered two ACL injuries to the same knee while playing for the Hoosiers, cutting short all four of his seasons spent in Bloomington. Finally healthy, Penix finished his collegiate career by transferring to Washington and leading the Huskies on a magical journey to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, where they fell to the Michigan Wolverines.
While his collegiate career was full of adversity and occasional heartbreak, Penix's final campaign propelled him into the NFL spotlight, highlighting his live arm and capabilities as a pro-ready quarterback with plenty of playing experience. Atlanta took the plunge on his potential, spending the eighth-overall pick on Penix in the 2024 draft less than two months after signing Cousins to a lucrative four-year deal.
At the time, the move seemed outrageous, but once Cousins struggled in the back half of his first season with the Falcons, Atlanta decided it was time to turn to Penix to close out the rest of the year. Penix showed promise in his three starts in 2024, which produced two narrow overtime losses but gave Falcons fans reason to believe they'd found their quarterback and were on track for a prosperous future.
That future has yet to arrive and might be on an extended delay after Penix's latest injury.
The good news is Penix's injured knee is not the same one he'd hurt multiple times in college. The bad news is his timetable for return doesn't give him the longest road to ensure he's entirely ready before folks start asking for his participation.
If Atlanta builds a solid plan of attack entering 2026 that doesn't require Penix to hustle through his recovery and rehabilitation, Penix can remain on the right long-term track. Much of that will depend on who is making the decisions for this team, though, which is far from guaranteed at this stage.
If the Falcons are to extract the most from Penix's potential, they'll only do so by being patient with him and building a better support system around him than they've had in the last year. From that point, the direction of his career will fall on the shoulders on the former Washington star.