FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- The Michael Penix Jr. whom fans saw last Sunday in his first NFL regular-season start was not the one who arrived here last April as the No. 8 pick in the draft.
What Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Darnell Mooney saw from Penix after the draft was a quarterback too eager to let go of the ball, someone who didn't yet have the patience to excel at the next level after taking Washington to the national championship game three months prior.
"When he first got here ... he was super [excited] to throw the ball, so getting it out of his hand, it was everybody just dropping the ball everywhere," Mooney said.
Penix's debut in the Falcons' 34-7 win over the New York Giants drew rave reviews across the league. Atlanta coach Raheem Morris called it an "almost flawless" performance. Penix was 18-of-27 for 202 yards with one interception that was not his fault.
The advanced stats made the rookie's first outing look even more impressive.
Penix, 24, was ninth among Week 16 quarterbacks in expected points added (6.3) and EPA per dropback (.22). He was third in success rate (55.2%), which gauges the effectiveness of every play toward its goal. It was only the second double-digit victory by a Falcons quarterback making his first start. (Matt Ryan was the other.) But to be fair, Penix did benefit from his defense's two pick-sixes against arguably the worst team in the NFL.
However, despite all the positives, there was an element of what Mooney had been talking about.
The Falcons had three dropped passes Sunday, including several costly ones. Coming into the game, Atlanta had just six drops all season, tied with the Los Angeles Rams for the second fewest.
One of those dropped passes, from tight end Kyle Pitts, resulted in an interception in the red zone Sunday. Another, on the game's first series, from wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud III cost the Falcons a first down.
Much of it is a product of the receivers getting used to a new quarterback. Kirk Cousins, who was benched early in Week 16, had been working with all of them going back to OTAs in the spring. They had not worked much with Penix, outside of McCloud, who is from Tampa, like Penix, and worked out often with the rookie in the offseason. The Falcons even signed wide receiver Chris Blair to the active roster last Saturday. Blair has been one of Penix's favorite targets on the scout team, going back to training camp. Blair had a 17-yard reception against the Giants.
Before Penix's start, Mooney described the situation as a "lack of chemistry." Penix and the receivers did everything they could to make up for it last week, by staying late after practice working together.
"I mean, it takes a lot of reps," Penix said. "That's the biggest thing. Just getting those reps in practice, as many live reps as we can -- and we did a lot of reps this past week. We're going to continue to grow.
"So, what you saw there [Sunday], a couple missed throws, stuff like that. It is only going to get better, as we continue to work, continue to get more comfortable with that connection."
There was one third-down play in the first quarter when Penix had wide receiver Drake London open on a fade out of the slot. Penix overthrew it, and that one was stuck in his head immediately following the game.
"He's a big receiver out there, threw the fade to him." Penix said. "I just got to know I've got to get that ball up higher and he's going to make that play.
"But like I said, it's just the more reps we get, the more comfortable we're going to be with it. And game time we're going to show it."
The Falcons are 8-7 and control their own destiny again following the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 16. If Atlanta can win on the road against the Washington Commanders on Sunday and beat the Carolina Panthers at home in Week 18, the team will be in the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
"All it is is practice," Morris said. "The amount of practice reps you get together. Those guys put the extra work in last week to get the results that they got this week, and I don't think they'll leave it at that this week. I think they'll put the extra work in this week to try to get those things done as well."
Morris said his favorite part of Penix's debut was his ability to come off the field and "verbalize" things he did wrong.
"That's a sign of an adult, that's a sign of a different form of maturity for us, and those are the things for me that I really covet," Morris said.
Penix played five seasons of college football and has a ton of experience. But he's still visibly a more polished product now than he was when he came into the building eight months ago. Morris credited his coaching staff and Penix learning from Cousins for that.
"It's a great job by how we wanted to manage it, how we want to get him out there," Morris said. "Like we mentioned last week, the plan came a little bit sooner, but the kid was ready. We had a lot of time to develop him.
"The kid did a great job ... developing himself and getting ready for that moment where it wasn't too big, and I was really proud and pleased with the effort that he was able to go out there and play with."