Michael Penix played last week. He didn’t play today.

The Falcons’ decision not to let the rookie quarterback play against the Ravens was as odd as their decision to draft him despite signing Kirk Cousins ​​as a free agent. Cousins ​​and Penix were two of 40 players who did not play for the Falcons, but Penix is ​​not a starter.

This meant that Taylor Heinicke and John Paddock had to share the snaps on Saturday.

Coach Raheem Morris said after the game that the Falcons had seen enough of Penix last week, when he started against the Dolphins and played 24 snaps, completing 9 of 16 passes for 104 yards.

“That’s what it was about. Last week we wanted to get him out there and get a feel for what he’s like in a live game, what we already knew it“Morris said in a video from Fox5’s Justin Felder. “We wanted to see that he could answer questions, talk about it on the sideline, go out there and execute, make mistakes and know what to do. … We saw enough of Michael Penix in live footage last week and now we had a chance to contain him in practice, you know, we give him a lot of live footage in practice so he’s doing everything he would do in a game except get hit.”

Morris indicated that Penix will not play in the third and final preseason game either.

“We feel really good about Michael. … Mike showed us enough last week that we don’t have to play him (again) in the preseason,” Morris said.

Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye, who is battling for the starting job, played 24 games on Thursday. The Bears let rookie quarterback Caleb Williams play the entire first half against the Bengals on Saturday to prepare him for the season opener.

However, Penix will apparently enter the 2024 season as the team’s second quarterback with only the playing time he received in the preseason opening game.