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ATLANTA, GEORGIA - NOVEMBER 16: Michael Penix Jr. #9 of the Atlanta Falcons looks on prior to the game against the Carolina Panthers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on November 16, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

The Michael Penix Jr. experiment has been nothing short of an up-and-down experience for the Atlanta Falcons since the team selected him with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

At some points, he’s looked like a legitimate, dynamic dual-threat quarterback who can become a long-term starter for a franchise. At other points, Penix has appeared as the inconsistent, injury-ridden player he was for a large part of his college career.

As the Falcons round out the second week of organized team activities, Penix remains in competition with former Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in a race for the starting job. And with the season closer than it may appear at the current moment, Penix has functioned in a limited capacity as he continues to recover from the ACL injury he suffered last season.

Carl Dukes, the co-host of “Dukes and Bell” on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, Georgia, recently opened up about his thoughts on the situation with Penix.

Carl Dukes Expresses Thoughts On Michael Penix Jr. Situation

Dukes did not hold back in sharing his view on what Penix has been and what his ceiling could be.

“These are the hard conversations that are had behind closed doors, in real NFL franchises,” he said. “I had someone around the league say to me, ‘You’re throwing good money after a bad problem,’ and what he meant by that was that Michael Penix (Jr.) is about to be 27 years old. So, in essence, when you drafted him, you already knew he was old. The clock was ticking.”

In addition to some of the elite tools Penix is lacking and the way his game doesn’t compare to a lot of other quarterbacks who possess the same physical running style, Penix’s football career has been littered with multiple major season-ending injuries. One could argue that the effects of those things never fully diminish.

“Then, he’s not a great athlete. Don’t mishear me. Don’t misunderstand me,” Dukes said. “Yes, he can run… but that’s not what his quarterbacking is built upon. He is not the athlete that Kyler Murray is. He’s not the athlete that Lamar Jackson is. He’s not the athlete Josh Allen is. And then, on top of that, he’s injury-prone.”

Did The Falcons Make a Mistake Drafting Penix at No. 8 Overall?

It doesn’t look like the Falcons have gotten a return on investment for the resources they’ve allocated toward Penix.

“It was a bad decision,” Dukes said. “When you look at it from that perspective, it’s hard for me to sit here and tell you that in four or five years that he’s carrying this team and that he has blossomed into this amazing, elite quarterback.”

Dukes said he was just laying out the “facts” and nothing more in his analysis of Penix’s potential NFL future.

“That’s my issue with this, and it’s not personal,” he continued. “We threw good money at a bad situation,” Dukes said as he shared why he believes “this competition is so important because it’s going to prove a lot to the fanbase and I think it’s going to prove a lot to guys on this team,” Dukes said.

It will be interesting to see what happens for Penix over the coming months in Atlanta, but it appears that if he can’t stay healthy for extended periods and maintain stability in his play, the window may be closing for him to become what we thought he was.