FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- All Michael Penix Jr. wanted to do was get back on the field. That was the goal after he suffered a torn left ACL last November.
In the meantime, the Atlanta Falcons could consider him only a question mark. It was the quarterback's third ACL surgery. He had torn his right ACL twice in college. In 12 career NFL starts, Penix also had not shown quite enough to be considered a sure thing.
So, the Falcons hedged their bets. They signed veteran Tua Tagovailoa in the offseason after he was released by the Miami Dolphins and stated outright that he would compete with Penix for the starting job.
Fast-forward seven months and Penix, since his return, is working on turning that question mark into an exclamation point.
In Week 7, Penix helped lead the Falcons to a 29-20 win over the previously undefeated San Francisco 49ers, who had former Falcons coach Raheem Morris -- the man who helped draft him -- scheming against Penix as defensive coordinator. The performance earned Penix his first NFC Offensive Player of the Week honor.
"We were down 14-3 and he was great," Falcons offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said. "He was unflappable."
Atlanta has won three of its five games since Penix came back in Week 3. On Sunday, the Falcons (3-4) have a chance to reach the .500 mark against the NFC South rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers and move into a share of first place.
"When [Penix] is out there, this is a completely different football team, and I really truly believe that he's a franchise quarterback," Falcons safety Jessie Bates III said.
Penix has now started 17 career games, the equivalent of a full season. The raw numbers are not breathtaking, but they are good. Penix has completed 61.5% of his passes for 3,914 yards with 21 touchdown passes and seven interceptions.
If those numbers were applied to the NFL's 2025 season, Penix would have been eighth in passing yards and tied for 18th in touchdowns. The advanced stats tell a similar story. Since his rookie year, Penix is 17th in both EPA per dropback (0.03) and success rate (45.4%).
Those numbers don't necessarily jump out as elite. But they do establish a baseline. Penix has been at least as good as the average NFL starter in those 17 career starts.
This season those numbers have trended upward for the most part. Penix is ninth in ESPN QBR (67.1), 13th in EPA per dropback (0.09) and 19th in success rate (43.9%).
The Falcons don't need Penix to be the best quarterback in the NFL statistically. They just need him to facilitate things for an offense that has running back Bijan Robinson, wide receiver Drake London and tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. He has achieved that to this point.
"The goal is to win," Penix said. "That's been the goal from day one: win. We got to win football games, and we got the team to do it. We got the coaches to do it."
The Falcons will have to make a decision on Penix as early as this coming offseason. He'll be heading into his fourth season, meaning Atlanta must figure out whether it will pick up his fifth-year option.
The team would love nothing more than for Penix to be, as Bates said, its franchise quarterback. The Falcons have not had one since Matt Ryan was traded in 2022. They also have not made the playoffs or had a winning season since 2017. Winning would go a long way toward solidifying Penix as the Falcons' guy.
Although Rees notes that Penix still has room to grow, the team's focus is less on his stats and more on its week-to-week game-planning.
"Mike's preparing the right way," Rees said. "He's really detailed in how he approaches the games. He was able to produce for us on the field. There's still things we want to improve. There's still things that we want to enhance that he's doing, magnify the things that he does really well. I think we're just all hungry for more right now and not really paying too much attention to, hey, this benchmark or this landmark."
That time will come, though. Probably soon. The good news for Penix is that as long as he stays healthy, he can control his own destiny.
"I think he's grown a lot as a player and he's been doing a lot of great stuff for the offense, man, and I think he wants to continue to get better, obviously," Robinson said. "But yeah, I think his process has been really good and I'm excited to get to keep playing with him every game coming up. And I know he's excited, too."