Around this time last season, Michael Penix Jr. was coming off a positive rookie season and the Atlanta Falcons QB was expected to take the next step in his development. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen last season.
Instead, Penix ended up tearing his MCL and ACL in his left knee, which brought up worries about his history of devastating knee injuries. Now, with Kevin Stefanski taking over as the Falcons head coach and Matt Ryan running the front office, Penix will have to battle Tua Tagovailoa for Atlanta’s starting QB job.
Atlanta’s QB Competition Between Michael Penix Jr., Tua Tagovailoa Has an Early Leader
With Penix’s injury history and his struggles last season, Atlanta needed to at least bring in some competition this offseason. Once the new regime took over, it made sense that they would want to bring in their own QB, too.
There weren’t many QB options available this offseason, but the Falcons ended up signing Tagovailoa after he was released by the Miami Dolphins.
Last season, Tagovailoa ranked 27th among all quarterbacks in PFSN’s QB Impact metric, while Penix ranked 31st in nine games. Neither QB is coming off of their best season, but the QB competition should be competitive.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, it appears Tagovailoa is taking the early lead in the QB competition.
“You got Tua and Michael Penix in Atlanta. This one has a bit of a wrinkle because Michael Penix is still coming back from that knee issue [and] hasn’t been cleared yet for 11-on-11 work, but he is out there doing 7-on-7 work,” Fowler said.
“Where Tua has the advantage is his accuracy. Head coach Kevin Stefanski has said many times before, but even recently in Atlanta, that accuracy is the No. 1 important thing in his offense. Tua has that, and he’s got the backing of Matt Ryan, Stefanski, and all the quarterbacks in that background from the past.”
Again, Ryan didn’t draft Penix, but he did sign Tagovailoa. Penix has some continuity with the receivers, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to do enough to keep his starting job. It doesn’t help that he still hasn’t been cleared for 11-on-11 yet, which could give Tagovailoa an opportunity to gain even more of a leg up.
Time will tell who will win the Falcons’ QB battle, but it’s very possible that this could go right up to the end of the preseason.
