Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank reportedly signed off on the decision to select former Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 overall in the first-round of the 2024 NFL Draft last Thursday (April 25), despite having recently signed Kirk Cousins to a $180 million contract, due to last year's quarterback situation.

Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson claims Blank endorsed the decision to take a quarterback in the first-round to general manager Terry Fontenot after the Falcons split starts between Taylor Heinicke and Desmond Ridder, who the team traded to the Arizona Cardinals this offseason just two years after selecting him in the third-round of the 2022 NFL Draft, in 2023.

“After watching Fontenot and the previous coaching staff juggle a failed attempt to develop third-round pick Desmond Ridder into a franchise player, Blank was motivated to overlap a late-career Cousins with a ‘special’ player waiting in the wings. Especially if that player wouldn’t be easy to acquire in future years,” Robinson wrote, comparing the move to the Kansas City Chiefs selecting eventual three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes in 2017 as the successor to Alex Smith, who remained the team's starter for Mahomes' rookie season before being traded to the Washington Commanders the following offseason.

Fontenot publicly addressed the team's decision to draft Penix, 23, last Thursday amid reports that Cousins, 35, was left "stunned" by the pick.