Welcome to Purple & Gold Prospects!

This will be an ongoing series to get Vikings fans familiar with upcoming draft prospects. The focus of this series will be to cover prominent prospects entering the upcoming NFL Draft. The series will center on the position groups of highest need on the current Vikings roster, but will also cover stand out players across the spectrum. I hope you will join me on this continuing journey to learn more about upcoming draft classes.

With that let’s discover the possible future of your Minnesota Vikings!

Background

Height: 6030

Weight: 213 lbs.

Michael Penix Jr. was a 3-star recruit out of Tamp Bay Tech High School. He started for Tampa Bay Tech for two seasons and amassed 4,243 passing yard and an impressive 61 to 6 TD-INT ratio. This earned him several college offers and he eventually committed to the Indiana Hoosiers in 2018. He would enter the transfer portal in 2021 and head to the Washington Huskies where he would explode after an injury-ridden career at Indiana. In his two seasons at Washington, Penix amassed 9,544 yards passing, 67 TDs, 19 INTs, and a completion rate of 65.4%. Penix ended second in Heisman voting this season falling short of Jayden Daniels. He has developed well at Washington and enters the draft coming off the best season of his college career.

Games watched: Michigan State 2022, Oregon 2022, Oregon State 2022, Texas 2022, UCLA 2022, Arizona 2023, Cal 2023, Oregon 2023

Strengths

Michael Penix Jr. displays adequate athleticism for the position. He is elusive in the backfield and buys time in extending plays with his legs waiting for receivers to get open. He keeps his eyes downfield waiting for routes to develop but is also a threat to pick up decent yardage with his legs. His processing is fairly good and reads the field well, quickly going through progressions to find the open routes. Penix processes defense well both pre and post-snap and takes advantage of mismatches with his elite receiving core. He pivots his hips quickly to the play. Penix has good timing and accuracy with the ability to zip balls into tight windows. He can hit any level of the field with flashes of making deep sideline throws from the opposite side. Accuracy and placement can be outstanding on those deeper out and sideline routes. He has moments of great poise against oncoming defenders. Penix also has good ball trajectories with the ability to fit passes in and over defenders. You can tell he has great trust in his receivers often taking shots against tight man coverage. Penix also does a good job protecting the ball and the awareness of when to slide to avoid unnecessary contact.

Weaknesses

Penix’s mechanics are inconsistent. His footwork is sloppy at times especially when under pressure. He doesn’t square himself fully to the pass and has to compensate using his arm to change angles to deliver the pass. His throwing motion can be a slower wind-up too often which affects the velocity and placement of his throws. He has a side-arm throw and combined with the inconsistencies in his lower and upper body mechanics it leads to accuracy and timing issues. On timing routes the pass is often outside of the receiver’s frame causing them to adjust and not hitting them in stride. This mainly shows up on crossing routes over the middle but it also created many contested catches that his receivers bailed him out on or sailing balls too far or outside his receivers’ frames. He also has to work on his anticipation and release the ball earlier to avoid defenders from breaking on the ball. Penix doesn’t always read the field correctly and can miss defenders moving into throwing lanes. He also has some extremely ill-advised throws while under pressure. Penix has a long injury history having only having played a full college season when he transferred to Washington. He tore the same ACL twice as well as suffering an AC joint injury in his shoulder while at Indiana. This sidelined him for the majority of his games as a starter with the Hoosiers. Because of these unfortunate events, Penix has played 6 seasons of college football and will be 24 as a rookie coming out in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Conclusion

Penix lead the Huskies to an undefeated regular season only falling to Michigan in the National Championship Game. With his development in Washington and a near Heisman-winning season it has had Penix steadily rising up draft boards. Some analysts even have him as a first-round prospect. However, he will need to heavily work on his mechanics. They may need to be almost completely broken down and built back up to really align his upper and lower body along with improving his throwing motion. For the Vikings he would definitely be a project. Penix would need at least an entire year to sit behind a veteran before considering putting him in as a starter with no guarantee he is fully ready by year 2. Because the Vikings are ready to go now with the offensive roster they have assembled I don’t think Penix will fit their timeline as the QB of the future. Although he is coming off an amazing couple of seasons at Washington I expect his deficiencies to have him land with a team in the late second or early 3rd round.

Grade

Accuracy: 13.1 / 15

Decision Making/Mental Ability: 13.5 / 15

Mechanics: 9.5 / 15

Touch/Trajectory: 12 / 15

Arm Strength: 8.5 / 10

Athleticism: 7.5 / 10

Durability: 4 / 10

Pocket Presence: 7 / 10

OVERALL: 75.1 – Late Third Round