![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761946689_610_raimondi_marc.png&h=80&w=80&scale=crop.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Marc RaimondiOct 31, 2025, 03:16 PM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Marc Raimondi’s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn’t his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book “Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling’s New World Order Changed America,” which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2025. Raimondi also worked for the New York Post and Newsday, beginning in 2009, covering high school and college sports, plus the NFL, NFL, MLB and NHL.<\/p>\n FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Atlanta Falcons<\/a> quarterback Michael Penix Jr<\/a>. carries no injury designation for Week 9 and will start Sunday against the New England Patriots<\/a>.<\/p>\n Penix has been dealing with a bone bruise on his left knee since the Falcons’ Week 7 game against the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>. The second-year quarterback got rolled up on late in that game’s fourth quarter and came up limping. He didn’t come out of the game but missed significant first-team reps in practice last week, as well as the team’s game against the Miami Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kirk Cousins<\/a> started in Penix’s place against the Dolphins, a disappointing 34-10 loss at home. Cousins was 26-of-38 for 202 yards without a touchdown or interception against Miami.<\/p>\n Penix was limited in practice this week until Friday, when he was a full participant. Penix has been the Falcons’ starter since Week 16 of last season when he took over for a struggling Cousins.<\/p>\n This season, Penix has completed 61% of his passes for 1,409 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions. The Falcons are 3-4 heading into the matchup with the Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n Wide receivers Drake London<\/a> (hip) and Darnell Mooney<\/a> (hamstring) both carry no injury designation heading into the weekend. London missed the Dolphins game, and Mooney has missed two games with shoulder and hamstring injuries thus far.<\/p>\n The Falcons will have defensive starters out for Sunday, though: defensive lineman Zach Harrison<\/a> (knee) and nickel corner Billy Bowman Jr<\/a>. (hamstring).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc RaimondiOct 31, 2025, 03:16 PM ET CloseMarc Raimondi’s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-263634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}