Your son may be on to something here. If not, this may be a perfect example of decision making made by a head coach who should be a coordinator.
As far a potential trade situation... You would have to think that this was set up ahead of time but it's taking time for other players involved to potentially sign extensions or something.
That said, I listened to an interview with Penix's former HC at Washington (now at Alabama) and he said that the coaching staff from the Falcons and management called him several times about Penix and they dove deeper into things than any other club did. He wasn't sure how it could all work out but he had a funny feeling that ATL might draft him. This sounds much more like a team that doesn't have a trade in the background.
Who knows... Maybe they trade Kirk Cousins. Does he have a no trade clause? I know they paid him a lot of money, but would someone else be willing to take on his contract and give up a future 1st round pick or something?
One way or another, the Falcons are either going to have Penix on the bench for 3/5 of his initial contract term, have the NFL's most expensive back-up QB or have to trade one of the 2 QBs to make sure the other is getting some playing time.
