FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The knee injury quarterback Michael Penix Jr. sustained in the Atlanta Falcons' Week 11 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers will sideline him for at least four of the remaining seven games on the 2025 schedule.

"Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. suffered a left-knee injury in Sunday's game against Carolina," the team said in a statement released Monday. "We are working through the medical process to determine the severity of the injury. He will be placed on the reserve/injured list and miss a minimum of four games. With the move, Kirk Cousins will assume the starting quarterback role for the Falcons at this time."

Speaking with the media afterward, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said Penix would get a second opinion on the injury Tuesday.

"Mike will go to IR," Morris said. "Don't have any further information on some of those types of things, but just putting out that he'll go to IR. So that will be at least a four-week deal. If anything comes up after that, obviously you've got some second opinions, and there will be a bunch of different things that have to go on over the (course of the next couple of days) and figure out what else that is."

Penix left Sunday's game in the third quarter, as the Falcons led 21-16. He hurt his knee on a third-and-10 play from Atlanta's own 22-yard line when tackled by Carolina safety Tre'von Moehrig after throwing an incomplete pass. Penix was slow to get up afterward. Once he did, athletic trainers walked him straight to the blue medical tent on the Falcons' sideline.

Backup quarterback Kirk Cousins finished out the remainder of the game, as the Falcons ultimately lost, 30-27.

Prior to his injury, Penix completed 13 of his 16 passes for 175 yards. Cousins then completed six of his 14 passes for 48 yards.

"Hurting for the young man, especially with how well he was playing at the beginning of that football game, really finding his groove," Morris said. "I liked his week of preparation. I like the way he went through everything. I like how he was prepared at a very high level. I like how he took a lot of ownership on it last week and really was ready to have a bounce-back week. It's heartbreaking for him to go out and get hurt."

The Falcons drafted Penix with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft with hopes of him being the quarterback of Atlanta's future. The plan was to allow Cousins, a veteran, to start while Penix developed as a rookie. However, that plan escalated when Cousins was benched due to performance issues in Week 16. Penix started the remaining three games and was named the starter moving forward into 2025.

Atlanta has a 3-6 record in games Penix has started this season — he missed the Falcons' Week 8 loss to the Miami Dolphins due to a knee injury. Otherwise, in the nine games Penix has played, he has completed 60.1% of his passes for an average of 220.2 yards per game. He has thrown nine touchdowns and three interceptions.

With Penix sidelined, Cousins will be the team's starter for the foreseeable future.

"He'll go through all the rotations this week," Morris said. "He'll go through everything that we need to get done in order for him to go out there and get a win for the football team."

In his sole start this year, Cousins completed 21 of his 31 passes for 173 yards. He also appeared in the Falcons' Week 3 loss to the Panthers for clean-up work. He was 5 of 7 for 29 yards in that game.

On the schedule in Week 12 for the Falcons are the New Orleans Saints, whom they will face this Sunday at Caesars Superdome.