Falcons head coach Raheem Morris wanted to put the rumors surrounding his quarterback to rest.
Morris spoke out about Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr.’s press conference, calling the discourse behind the now-viral clip “a joke.”
In the video from a press conference on Wednesday, Penix, 25, pointed to his fiancée and former coaches as people he leans on for support.
Fans on social media, however, took Penix’s comments as that the second-year quarterback has no one on the Falcons’ coaching staff or roster supporting him — a notion that Morris said “lets you down” about how people act online.
“Stop looking for stuff on a young man,” Morris said Friday, per ESPN. “You don’t need this stuff on him. It is what it is. But all of those things people do, it doesn’t matter to affect this building.
“I just feel bad for the kid. I don’t want the kid having to deal with stuff that doesn’t matter or stuff that’s not real. … Let his problems be his problems, like third downs. Let’s fix those. Don’t make up [a thing] that doesn’t exist.”
Penix himself also shut down the rumors on Friday, saying that everyone on the Falcons knows how he feels about them.
Quarterbacks coach D.J. Williams said that he did not even feel the need to have a conversation with Penix about the clip, claiming that he talks to the Falcons quarterbacks more than his own children.
“I don’t even pay attention to it, to be honest with you,” Williams said. “As long as we know. I mean, everything else is just elevator music.”
Penix has seen some success in his first season as Atlanta’s starting quarterback, racking up 1,807 passing yards and nine touchdowns through eight games played.
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Falcons running back Bijan Robinson said he talked to Penix about how the media can take things and “blow it way out of proportion.”
“Everybody’s here to help,” Robinson said. “Everybody wants you to succeed at the end of the day. So for us, everybody in this building, we all got each other’s back.
“That’s why I tell everybody, the outside world, the external world is going to try to divide us and try hard. So we got to keep our faith high, and that’s just going to push us through.”
The Falcons are currently 3-6 on the season, having lost four straight games as they play the division-rival Panthers on Sunday.
