Falcons Hand the Keys to Michael Penix Jr. for Thursday Night Football

The Atlanta Falcons are officially handing the keys to Michael Penix Jr. for Week 3, which means their chaotic quarterback carousel has finally landed on the guy with the freshly reconstructed knee.

According to Ian Rapoport, Penix will make his first career start this Thursday against the Green Bay Packers. The quarterback has deemed his ACL ready for live action after splitting first-team reps in practice, mercifully ending the Cooper Rush era just days after Atlanta suffered a brutal 34-3 blowout loss to the Carolina Panthers.

"Ian Rapoport reported that Penix has deemed his reconstructed ACL ready after splitting reps last week with the 1s."

Throwing a quarterback into his first start on a short week is already a massive gamble. Doing it roughly ten months after he tore his ACL in Week 11 of last season is the kind of decision that sounds like it was made by someone who plays Madden with the injury settings turned off. For context, Penix is stepping onto a Thursday Night Football stage just four days after taking zero full-speed game hits.

You can understand the desperation when you look at the rest of the depth chart. With Tua Tagovailoa sidelined by an oblique injury and Rush looking completely overmatched, the Falcons were running out of viable humans to throw the football. Still, rushing Penix back against a Packers team that just grinded out a 20-17 win over the Jets feels like throwing a guy who just learned to swim into the deep end of a wave pool.

Oddsmakers are going to have an absolute headache trying to set player props for a debut quarterback operating on a surgically repaired knee under the Thursday night lights. If Penix comes out firing, the Falcons suddenly have a pulse and a reason to believe in their investment. If he looks hesitant, Atlanta fans are going to be staring at a very long, very painful autumn.