Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr. trying to clear mental hurdle: ‘Do I trust that?’

FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. has already cleared this hurdle before. Twice, actually. And his doctor is positive he’ll clear it again, once and for all.

“I went and saw the doctor before camp started. He’s like, ‘This is an amazing ACL. You should never have any more knee problems for the rest of your career,’” Penix said Wednesday. “That’s word for word what he told me.

“So it’s like, ‘OK, I hear that.’ But I’m, like, ‘All right, do I trust that?’”

The hurdle, by this point, is hardly physical. Penix appeared on former NFL quarterback Cam Newton’s “4th&1” podcast Tuesday and said he can “go out there and do anything” on his knee, which is nearly nine months removed from surgery after he tore his ACL in Week 11 last season.

“It’s more like some small growing pains that I go through that I got to make sure I’m at 100%, to where it’s like when I get out there, I don’t want to be thinking about it,” Penix told Newton. “A lot of it’s mental.”

Penix wants you to picture this.

Imagine something bad happens to you, and you remember every step that led to the ill-fated moment. The next time you want to partake in that event, you’re going to think about the mishap from the previous effort. Even if you’re confident the result will be better, you just won’t be able to shake that bad feeling.

Penix is familiar with this feeling. He battled it after tearing his ACL in 2018 and 2020 at Indiana. After his first tear, he didn’t feel his mind elevate over the hurdle until he took his first hit.

“I got rolled up, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m good. Let’s go,’” Penix said Wednesday. “And I was ready to go.”

He never really found that feeling after his 2020 injury. His mind never wanders too far from the fall of 2021, when he “didn’t feel mentally there” and struggled through five games before suffering a season-ending shoulder sprain.

Penix vowed whenever he’s on the field next for the Falcons, he’ll be his truest self. His biggest focal point is being so strong mentally and physically that he’s no longer thinking about his knee. He wants no hesitation, just a mind steadfast on having fun.

“It’s just more so having that confidence in and not worrying about it,” Penix said. “Injuries happen in football, but at the same time, you don’t want it to happen again. So it’s like I got to get out of my mind, ‘What if it happened again?’ And just go out there and just play.”

The 26-year-old Penix said in July he believes he was physically cleared to participate in 11-on-11 periods by this point in his prior two rehabs. He’s not there quite yet, and he’s been restricted to 7-on-7 work in training camp.

But he doesn’t feel behind in confronting his mental hurdle. He’s unsure when it’ll come, but the fact he’s uneasy is far from abnormal for this point in his recovery.

“I don’t think it’s a timeline on when that’s clear,” Penix said. “Sometimes it’s like you take that first hit and now it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re good.’ … So, you never know when that time is. Obviously, you don’t want it to be on that first tackle.

“But whenever that time does come — for me, I just got to trust in my faith, trust that God’s got me and I just got to be worryfree and just go out there and have fun.”

There are no shortage of voices offering encouragement and lending an ear to Penix. His teammates often ask how he’s feeling, how his day went and if he’s feeling better. He leans on his wife, Olivia. His father, Michael Penix Sr., is also a prominent presence.

“My dad will call me just, like, ‘How you doing?’ I’ll tell my dad, ‘I’m doing good.’ He’s like, ‘No, really, how you doing? Talk to me,’” Penix said. “So, I do have people that always check up on me.”

Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said he believes Penix will build confidence once he’s cleared for 11-on-11 and can stack more reps in team periods. All told, Stefanski is “very pleased” with where Penix stands in his recovery process.