QB Penix gives Falcons reason for hope as defense faces possible offseason changes after 8-9 finish

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) — Michael Penix Jr. left the Atlanta Falcons' practice facility on Monday clutching two game balls as keepsakes from a rookie season that ended with his first three starts.

The quarterback's introduction as Atlanta's starter provided hope players will have more than personal souvenirs to remember future seasons. The mandate for Penix and the Falcons in 2025 will be ending seven-year streaks of losing seasons and missing the playoffs.

Despite Penix passing for 312 yards and accounting for three touchdowns — two passing and one rushing — Atlanta's 44-38 overtime loss to Carolina on Sunday extended the playoff drought and streak of losing seasons.

“There’s a lot of ups and downs, but we showed a lot of great things, a lot of great things on film,” Penix said after he and teammates cleaned out their lockers at their practice facility.

The Falcons (8-9) couldn't take advantage of a strong 6-3 start to the season with Kirk Cousins at quarterback. After holding a two-game lead in the NFC South through nine games, Atlanta closed with back-to-back overtime losses, including a 30-24 loss at Washington on Dec. 29.

“The last two games being overtime losses with playoff implications on the line was super highly emotional because those games could go either way,” said veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, who has played in Atlanta through all seven losing seasons. “That’s how close it is.”

Penix showed impressive poise in his first start, a 34-7 win over the New York Giants on Dec. 23 that again left Atlanta in control of the division. That win provided Penix's first game ball. His rushing TD against Carolina earned him his second game ball.

The loss to the Commanders left Atlanta needing to beat Carolina on Sunday while hoping first-place Tampa Bay lost to New Orleans. Instead, the Buccaneers clinched the division by beating the Saints in a game that ended as the Falcons entered overtime.

Penix took over as the starter when the Falcons benched Cousins. With Penix firmly established as the starter for 2025, the Falcons' offseason priority may be making a decision on trading, releasing or keeping Cousins, 36.

Atlanta signed Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract in the last offseason with $100 million guaranteed, including $10 million if he remains on the roster on March 17. Cousins was not present in the time reporters were allowed in the locker room on Monday.

Penix said Cousins was “amazing” while providing “great support” after losing the starting job.

Coach Raheem Morris said a decision on Cousins “is part of the process we'll go through right now” with general manager Terry Fontenot.

Carolina gained 537 yards, leaving Morris critical of his defense’s “awful game.”

The day of poor defense ended with the Panthers driving for the touchdown to open overtime and preventing Penix, running back Bijan Robinson and wide receiver Drake London from having an opportunity to post more big numbers.

Asked Monday about defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake and if he anticipates changes on the staff, Morris said “I’ve been around the league for a while and very rarely do things stay the same.”

London had 10 catches for a career-high 187 yards and two touchdowns while Robinson ran for 170 yards and two touchdowns.

“A lot of guys on this team can make big plays, you know, all across the board,” Penix said. “And that’s what we’re super excited about.”

Penix, Robinson and London were the Falcons’ first-round picks in the past three drafts.

“We’re young, you know, and we’ve got a lot of young players and a lot of guys that make big-time plays,” Penix said.

Penix gave Morris reason for optimism despite the disappointing loss to Carolina.

“Realistically, the light at the end of the tunnel for us, despite how bad and poor we played on defense or anywhere, is the quarterback,” Morris said. “The organization has a quarterback that is certainly bright, that is certainly our future, that certainly can go out and make any single play and play in any single game that you can play in.”

The defense struggled despite strong seasons from cornerback A.J. Terrell, safety Jessie Bates and linebacker Kaden Elliss. While losing six of eight games to close the season, the Falcons gave up 30 or more points four times.

Bates had four interceptions, four forced fumbles and 102 tackles. Ellis led the team with 150 tackles and had five sacks. Terrell was always assigned the opposing team's top wide receiver.

The Falcons will have five picks in the NFL draft on April 24-26, including No. 15 in the first round.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris watches during the first half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) warms up before an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Landover. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. runs against the Carolina Panthers during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. meet after overtime in an NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. runs for a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” a name he said has a “beautiful ring to it.”

It's his latest suggestion to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the “51st State,” demanded that Denmark consider ceding Greenland, and called for Panama to return the Panama Canal.

Here's a look at his comment and what goes into a name.

Since his first run for the White House in 2016, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Mexico over a number of issues, including border security and the imposition of tariffs on imported goods. He vowed then to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. The U.S. ultimately constructed or refurbished about 450 miles of wall during his first term.

The Gulf of Mexico is often referred to as the United States' “Third Coast” due to its coastline across five southeastern states. Mexicans use a Spanish version of the same name for the gulf: “El Golfo de México.”

Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

Maybe, but it's not a unilateral decision, and other countries don't have to go along.

The International Hydrographic Organization — of which both the United States and Mexico are members — works to ensure all the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. There are instances where countries refer to the same body of water or landmark by different names in their own documentation.

It can be easier when a landmark or body of water is within a country's boundaries. In 2015, then-President Barack Obama approved an order from the Department of Interior to rename Mount McKinley — the highest peak in North America — to Denali, a move that Trump has also said he wants to reverse.

Just after Trump's comments on Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said during an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson that she would direct her staff to draft legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, a move she said would take care of funding for new maps and administrative policy materials throughout the federal government.

The body of water has been depicted with that name for more than four centuries, an original determination believed to have been taken from a Native American city of “Mexico.”

Yes. In 2012, a member of the Mississippi Legislature proposed a bill to rename portions of the gulf that touch that state's beaches “Gulf of America,” a move the bill author later referred to as a “joke.” That bill, which was referred to a committee, did not pass.

Two years earlier, comedian Stephen Colbert had joked on his show that, following the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it should be renamed “Gulf of America” because, "We broke it, we bought it.”

There's a long-running dispute over the name of the Sea of Japan among Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, with South Korea arguing that the current name wasn't commonly used until Korea was under Japanese rule. At an International Hydrographic Organization meeting in 2020, member states agreed on a plan to replace names with numerical identifiers and develop a new digital standard for modern geographic information systems.

The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company's decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps.

There have been other conversations about bodies of water, including from Trump’s 2016 opponent. According to materials revealed by WikiLeaks in a hack of her campaign chairman’s personal account, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2013 told an audience that, by China’s logic that it claimed nearly the entirety of the South China Sea, then the U.S. after World War II could have labeled the Pacific Ocean the “American Sea.”

Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

President-elect Donald Trump walks from the podium after a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)