New York Giants Draft Prospect: QB Michael Penix, Jr
Michael Penix Jr., QB
Height: 6’2
Weight: 216 lbs
Arm length: 33 ⅝”
Wingspan: 76 ¾”
Hands: 10 ½”
Class: Super Senior
School: Washington
STATS
MEASUREMENTS
40-yard-dash: 4.46*
Vertical jump: 36.5”*
Broad jump: 10’5”*
*Pro Day workouts (the 40-yard dash time varies per scout)
A former three-star recruit out of Tampa Bay Tech High School in Tampa, Florida, where he was the 154th overall Floridian recruit in the 2018 recruiting cycle. Penix Jr. was born in Cookeville, Tennessee, and later moved to Dade City, Florida. His father was a running back at Tennessee Tech where he holds several school rushing records, and his mother ran track at Tennessee Tech.
Penix Jr. threw for 61 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions in 24 games as the starting QB in high school while rushing for 449 yards on 37 carries with 10 touchdowns. He was the Hillsborough Country Player of the Year as a senior in high school.
Penix Jr. initially attended Indiana University from 2018-2021 before transferring to Washington for his final two collegiate seasons. He was the 23rd-ranked quarterback and the 247th overall player when he entered the transfer portal after the 2021 season.
Penix Jr. dealt with his fair share of injuries throughout his college career. His 2018 & 2020 seasons ended with a torn right ACL, and he missed the final four games of his 2019 season with a clavicle fracture. In 2021, his final season at Indiana, Penix Jr. separated his left (throwing) A/C joint (shoulder) in Week 5 and missed the remainder of the season.
Injuries plagued Michael Penix Jr. all throughout his time as a Hoosier, but his time at Washington was sensational. He threw for over 4,500 yards in each season with 67 touchdowns and just 19 interceptions. In 2022, he was the AP Comeback Player of the Year, was a Davey O’Brien Award Semifinalist, and was Second-Team All Pac-12.
Washington went all the way to the National Championship in 2023 - Penix Jr. was the catalyst. He was a Heisman Trophy Finalist (finished second to LSU’s Jayden Daniels), a Davey O’Brien Award Finalist, a First Team All-American, and he won the Maxwell Award. The team captain ranks second most in Pac-12 history in single-season passing (4,906); he broke his own record set the previous year (4,641).
Penix Jr. did not miss any time when at Washington, and he passed his medical checks at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine; still, his medicals will likely still be scrutinized due to the severity and frequency of his past injuries.
Strengths
* Solid height with massive hands
* A true pocket passer with the ability to attack anywhere on the football field
* Checks and sets at the LOS to help protection - smart command of the offense
* Does an excellent job seeing pressure and having a plan - Football IQ
* Sees the field well, pulled back vs. almost disastrous mistakes
* Excellent ability to avoid sacks- only sacked 31 times on 1,759 dropbacks (was assisted by elite OL at Washington)
* Displayed ability to quickly reset his feet when navigating the pocket
* Moves around the pocket well to adapt to blockers - keeps eyes downfield
* Manages pocket and progressions well
* Can quickly get through progressions when it warrants and answers weren’t evident
* Good overall decision-maker
* Good eye manipulation and timing to hold single-high safeties to buy time
* Beautiful peripheral vision read safeties and influence coverage away from his desired target
--Oregon Q1 10:55, 26-yard TD
* One of the best throwers in the entire draft
* Effortless arm strength and thrower of the football
* Ability to throw receiver’s open
* Excellent deep ball accuracy - precision
* Zip, Zip, Zip on the football - can fit the ball into the tightest of windows
* Finds way to get rid of the football near an eligible receiver before getting hit
* All the arm strength to hit throws from the far hash
* Excellent timing and delivery on deep comebacks from the far hash
--Ball zips out of his hand with good placement away from defenders when not under pressure
* Very accurate 50-50 ball thrower
* Anticipatory thrower over the middle of the field
--Best example Texas Q3 10:35 TD
* Success rolling to his right despite being a lefty
--Quick to reset and get aligned to throw an accurate pass
* Looks for the big play - not afraid to throw it deep
*Came up huge in multiple big-time situations
[View more draft prospect scouting profiles.]
Weaknesses
* Slight frame with longer arms that cause a long release
* Footwork efficiency can improve
* Tested well but rarely used his legs - 402 career rushing yards
* Seems a bit stiff as an athlete
* Great pockets with Rosengarten and Fautanu and the rest of the OL
--This shouldn’t be held against him, but it does apply context to his situation; the noticeable difference under pressure, combined with this fact, does cause concern
* Would occasionally completely miss short-to-intermediate passes
--Wouldn’t always align feet/hips/eyes, causing those occasional slip ups
*Too much zip - needs to add more touch on his passes
* Noticeably different QB under pressure
--Vs. Oregon (CC); Oregon Wk 7 Q3 7:27; Oregon State Q2 10:36; Utah Q2 7:14
* Not a consistent, proven track record out of structure or on the move
* Operated predominantly out of shotgun
* How creative can he be out of structure?
* Offense relied heavily on 50-50 balls
* Hard to overlook past injuries
* Will be a 24-year-old rookie
Summary
Michael Penix Jr. has a true NFL arm and can throw the football into the tightest of windows. He has an excellent combination of arm strength, velocity, and deep accuracy. He does have some gunslinger in his game. He showed the ability to attack every part of the field, some areas more comfortable than others. He has beautiful throws over the middle (Texas Q3 10:35 TD), but he seemed hesitant to pull the trigger when targeting the intermediate middle areas of the field.
I love the way Penix Jr. attacks the football field, wanting to make the big play. The lefty is fearless, ripping far-hash throws with precise placement to the WR’s outside shoulder. We saw many of these big-time throws against Texas in 2023—he had an impressive 15% Big Time Throw rate that game. That game was the best one on tape. Penix Jr. possesses a high football IQ in regards to managing the pocket and keeping his eyes downfield with good overall decision making.
His throwing mechanics can be elongated and aren’t always crisp which does lead to accuracy issues on throws that appear to be layups for him, especially considering the precise nature of some of his deep passes. The injuries are difficult to overlook, but I’m also concerned about his nature under pressure. I appreciate his overall acumen and his awareness to locate blitzing threats and set protection accordingly; however, when he did face pressure (which wasn’t often), he was a noticeably different quarterback.
He’s a pocket passer, through and through, and an accurate one at that. He tested well athletically on his Pro Day, but we haven’t seen that athletic ability translate to the football field. That doesn’t mean it can’t manifest in a different offensive approach on Sunday. Penix Jr. also did a solid job finding answers when the coverage was sticky; he quickly got threw his reads and lived to fight another day without suffering a catastrophic negative play. However, the personnel and spread-out nature of Washington’s offense helped open space in the passing game.
Overall, Penix Jr. is one of the more interesting quarterback evaluations. He tested uber-athletically, but we rarely saw that on tape. He didn’t succeed much under pressure, but he wasn’t under pressure often. He’s not always fundamentally sound and doesn’t have a track record of playing out of structure, but has a true NFL-caliber arm with the zip and, at times, precision to somehow fit a football through a keyhole from the far-hash. At times, he can use more touch and less zip. With that arm and rare ability, it’s easy to see why a team will fall in love with his upside, but there are risks.
GRADE: 6.24
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