Mitch Morse planted his flag this week. The Atlanta Falcons, he said, belong to Michael Penix Jr. Football Debate Club‘s Jacob Infante sees it differently, and he has the metrics to argue it.
“That may be true from a leadership perspective, but Tua Tagovailoa is the better quarterback right now,” Infante said, conceding the intangibles while rejecting the conclusion. With Penix still working back from a torn ACL and Tua healthy under new coach Kevin Stefanski, Infante would not be surprised if the veteran holds the job all season.
Why Tua Tagovailoa Has the Edge in the Falcons’ QB Battle
Infante’s case starts with production. By PFSN’s QB Impact metric, Tua finished 27th among quarterbacks last season, ahead of Penix at 31st. “So not great,” as Infante put it, “but it’s still better than Penix’s 31st ranking last year.” The raw scores tell the same story, with Tua at 72.0 and Penix at 69.9.
The film behind those numbers is messier. Tua threw for 2,660 yards with 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions for Miami in 2025, a 67.7% completion rate undercut by the turnovers that eventually cost him his job. The Dolphins released him in March after six seasons. Atlanta scooped him up on a one-year deal worth just $1.2 million, a low-risk flier on a passer who was a Pro Bowler as recently as the 2023 season.
Health is the other half of the argument. “You factor in the fact that Penix is coming off of a partially torn ACL,” Infante said, “and Tua, for all of his durability concerns over the years, he currently is healthy.” Penix suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 11 last November and underwent ACL surgery. As of mid-June he had not been cleared for 11-on-11 work, while Tua has taken the bulk of the first-team reps this spring.
Mitch Morse Makes the Case for Penix
Morse, the former NFL center now on Good Morning Football, isn’t ignoring any of that. He’s arguing the timing cuts the other way. “I still think that this is Michael Penix Jr.’s team,” Morse said, warning Atlanta not to “take the reins from a kid who’s still trying to figure this thing out and who’s got all the talent in the world.”
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His logic is about reps, not talent. “I don’t know if it’s fair to have that answer right now with Michael Penix Jr. not being able to participate in 11-on-11 drills,” Morse said. Until Penix is cleared and the pads come on, the competition isn’t settled, and a healthy Tua running the new offense at full speed gets a head start that’s hard to undo.
That’s the tension Stefanski inherited. Penix is the 2024 No. 8 overall pick, younger, signed for multiple years, and the player the front office drafted to build around. Tua is the rental. Infante grants the point on age and upside, then lands where the present tense takes him. “Obviously, he’s younger, but Tua is the better quarterback,” he said.
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The Falcons open the 2026 season against the Steelers on Sept. 13, and Penix has said he’s targeting Week 1. Whether he’s cleared in time, and whether Atlanta wants to hand the keys back the moment he is, may decide a season for a franchise that hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2017. Infante isn’t hedging. He “wouldn’t be surprised if [Tua] plays the whole season as Atlanta’s starting quarterback.”
