Steven Ruiz· Aug 27, 2026
In a retrospective tiering of all 32 starting quarterbacks, Ruiz treats Michael Penix Jr. as the Falcons' Week 1 starter over Kirk Cousins, whom he places in his lowest tier.
“...just ask Falcons fans how excited they are by the prospect of Michael Penix Jr. starting in Week 1 and then remind yourself that Cousins couldn't beat him out a year ago.”
published in writing · Fox Sports · read the original →
One checkable claim, graded on its own against what actually happened.
It names 2 players and teams, each linked to their own record.
The call scored 0 out of 100, against 0 for a naive guess at the same calls.
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Who this take is about
The game in this take
- Falcons at Steelers 34 calls
1 checkable claim in this take
Each one is scored on its own against the published methodology. A pundit naming several outcomes is graded on each, not on all-or-nothing.
Michael Penix Jr. to be 1st on the depth chart
“just ask Falcons fans how excited they are by the prospect of Michael Penix Jr. starting in Week 1 and then remind yourself that Cousins couldn't beat him out a year ago”
Miss · 0Scored 0a naive guess scored 0+0 skillHow this was scored
- club:
- ATL
- week:
- 1
- skill:
- 0
- player:
- Michael Penix Jr.
- season:
- 2026
- claimed:
- he starts
- accuracy:
- 0
- baseline:
- 0
- reported:
- he did not play that week
- naive slot:
- 1
- settled by:
- weekly snap counts (he took no snap in the game)
- difficulty:
- 2
- the naive guess:
- he keeps the job he had last season
- weeks in the season:
- 18
- weeks left when called:
- 18
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