Latest rankings from NFL analyst add jarring bullishness to Rams' 2026 draft

The Los Angeles Rams are quietly hoping for misfortune to befall the Atlanta Falcons in the 2025 NFL season. The Rams are not hoping for the malicious kind of bad luck, like injuries or something that involves harm. The Rams (and fans) are hoping for that bit of bad luck that involves a bad bounce of the football, or consistently coming up short when the officials call for the chains to determine if the Falcons have earned a new set of offensive downs.

You see, the worse the Falcons do, the better off the Rams' position in the 2026 NFL Draft. And with the latest quarterback rankings from NFL Spin Zone, the Rams should be sitting pretty on Day 1 of that draft.

Draft order in the NFL draft is established by inverting the order of how teams finished in the previous season. As the Philadelphia Eagles were the victors in Super Bowl LIX, they will choose last in every round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Since the Rams advanced to the Divisional Round of the 2025 NFL Playoffs, they will select at the 27th overall pick.

But the Rams traded their 2025 NFL Draft Round 1 and Round 3 picks for a package of picks from the Atlanta Falcons that includes the Round 1 pick of the 2026 NFL Draft from the Falcons. And some NFL draft analysts already project that Round 1 pick to fall as the 10th overall pick in the draft. But the Falcons are not playing veteran QB Kirk Cousins this season, and have already declared that second-year quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to be ranked 29th out of 32 NFL teams in terms of 2025 quarterback rankings.

That is music to the Rams' fans ears.

Penix was a 1-2 starter for the Falcons in 2024, completing 58.1 percent of his passes for 775 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions. His lone victory came against the New York Giants in Week 16. But he lost two consecutive overtime games against the Washington Commanders and the Carolina Panthers, respectively. While he seemed to improve at finding the end zone, he consistently threw an interception in each of his NFL starts.

From an objective viewpoint, I understand that the Atlanta Falcons want to pivot to their future franchise quarterback. But from that same perspective, the Falcons are simply a far more competitive team with Cousins under center. By naming Michael Penix as the starter for the 2025 NFL season, only three scenarios can take place, and none are particularly rosy for the team's future.

If Penix plays well, then Cousins remains a disgruntled veteran on the bench. Disgruntled veterans are not good for locker room chemistry. If Penix struggles, then the team can sit him on the bench, and Cousins can reclaim his starting role. But that will shatter Penix's confidence, and he may never snap back to claim the optimal track of his NFL career ever again.

Of course, Penix could struggle but retain the backing of the team. In that scenario, the outcry of fans to promote Kirk Cousins over a young, struggling Michael Penix Jr. at quarterback could prove to be the worst of the bunch. Cousins may not perform well, having been frustrated by the team's deception of adding a young quarterback to start in his place. And Penix, having lost the fans, will become self-conscious and continue to struggle as he overthinks his role.

What is it that was once said about an NFL team that has two starting NFL quarterbacks? It was legendary head coach John Madden who once said:

So we are about to witness how that all plays out. From the latest humbling quarterback rankings from NFL Spin Zone author Lou Scataglia, the quarterback chaos facing the Falcons in 2025 adds sparkling luster to the LA Rams outlook for the 2026 NFL Draft. How low can the Falcons go? While that has seldom been a matter that Rams fans have tracked in the past, it's something that Rams fans will be cheering for in the 2025 NFL season.

As always, thanks for reading.

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