Friday turned into “Dunk on Dan Orlovsky Day” for ESPN analysts.
Orlovsky is one of the dozens of people — dozens — who are defending the Falcons using a first-round draft pick on Michael Penix Jr. after paying Kirk Cousins.
And his colleagues are letting him have it.
Marcus Spears said Orlovsky lives in a “world of naivety.”
Mina Kimes called the sourced argument Orlovsky is using as “somewhat logically incoherent.”
And Michael Lombardi came on “The Pat McAfee Show” to mock Orlovsky’s team-building chops.
You could feel the burn no matter🌌 how far you are from De💮troit.
It all started after Oꦰrlovsky did a 🧸180 on the controversial pick Friday.
After the Falcons selected the Washington quarterback on Thursday night♎, Orlovsky originally qꦕuestioned the selection, like most.
“The Penix one is head-scratching to me,” Orlovsky . “It’s also not going to help a 36-year-old quarterback win. Here’s the best-case scenario, Kirk Cousins plays there for three years, you just paid him all that money, you want that contract to pay off. Best-case scenario, Michael Penix plays sooner rather than later. Those two things can’t happen at the same time.”
After a talk with a source Friday, t��hough, Orlovsky suppor꧙ted the pick.
He explained to that three factors influenced Atlanta’s selection.
First, the Falcons had Penix as the No. 2 quarterback in the draft behind Washington pick Jayden Daniels and one of the top five players in the draft.
Second, the Falcons expect to be improved with Kirk Cousins and won’t have a chance to draft a top quarterback anytime soon.
And lastly, Penix reminded them of Lions starter Matthew Stafford during his workout with how he threw the ball on a windy༒ day.
“I just know this, Atlanta doesn’t really have to have a high level of concern, if at all, until 2030 for a quarterback, and that’s rare in the NFL,” Orlovsky said.
Yet his colleagues didn’t want to hear any of it.
Let’s start with Spears, the harshest of the critiques.
Spears believes the Falcons ๊are opening themselves to unneeded controversy.
“You live in this world of naivety,” Spears said. “There will be a time in this season if Kirk Cousins throws two interceptions or he doesn’t play well where we know what’s going to happen. We know what we’re going to come on TV and say. We know what Atlanta Falcons fans are going to say. We know there will be pressure. I don’t care how good Arthur Blank feels right now about the situation they in quarterback wise. Let Kirk Cousins start playing bad for a couple of weeks or have a bad stretch throughout the season and we all know what this going to get to.
“If we think that there is no chance for some BS to creep in in this situation, we have not been covering this game long enough. We’ve seen it too much, bro.”
Kimes’ issue stemmed from the Falcons spending $100 million guaranteed on a four-year, $180 million deal with cousins and then not fortifying a roster that isn’t truly championship caliber.
She added that Penix being 24 doesn’t help since he needs to play right away.
“I find the justification to be somewhat logically incoherent,” Kimes said. “If you think you’re going to be good, which is why you pay Kirk Cousins $100 million dollars guaranteed, you’re doing your team a disservice by not making your team better so you can compete now.
“I just don’t get this, frankly. I’ve been trying to understand it because I was shocked and I went through, OK, well Kirk Cousins’ contract, the timeline, all of it. It just doesn’t add up. It doesn’t add up for the team or the player. I wish he had landed somewhere else because I don’t think this was a good destination for Penix either.”
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Lombardi had perhaps the softest takedown when McAfee informed him of the former Lions quarterback’s thoughts on the selection.
“First of all, Dan’s one of the great team builders of all time,” . “No one can build a team better than Dan.”
Orlovsky seemed to at least lean into the ongoing discussion by of himself with a shocked expression with the caption: “When ATL took Penix.”
Thankfully for Orlovsky, there are no more top-tier quarterbacks to come off the board earlier than expect🍷ed when the draft resumes Friday.
