Pro Football Rumors
One of the more intriguing position battles of the offseason has been the one featuring two lefties in Atlanta. Ever since they traded away Matt Ryan, the Falcons have been hoping to confirm the ascent of their next franchise quarterback with disappointing results. The 2026 season may be the last real opportunity for former No. 8 overall pick Michael Penix Jr. and veteran free agent addition Tua Tagovailoa to prove they can be a starting quarterback in the NFL today.
Penix has struggled to live up to his draft stock so far — a draft stock that was majorly inflated by a number of QB-hungry teams creating a run of six passers in the first 12 picks in 2024. Caleb Williams (first overall in 2024), Jayden Daniels (second), Drake Maye (third), and Bo Nix (12th), have all secured the starting jobs on their respective teams at this point, while J.J. McCarthy (10th) and Penix have both gotten a bit of run on their first-team offenses but now face battles with older quarterbacks taken in the top five of their respective drafts.
Penix was a surprise pick for Atlanta after they had signed veteran Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180MM deal in free agency. Cousins chose to leave Minnesota after the Vikings express their intentions draft his eventual replacement, and Cousins was under the impression that the Falcons held no such plans, but along came Penix. Atlanta stuck with Cousins to start the 2024 season, and Penix made his NFL debut in a pair of blowout losses in Weeks 7 & 11 of his rookie year. Due to poor play, the Falcons eventually benched Cousins in Week 16, allowing Penix to start the final three games of the season with middling results.
Penix showed decent improvement as he opened last year as the team’s starting quarterback. He was showing solid production and discipline, averaging about 220 yards per game with only three interceptions in nine starts, but his efficiency left room for improvement as he completed barely 60 percent of his passes and only found the end zone nine times with his arm. His season ended with a partially torn ACL, his fifth season-ending injury and third ACL tear dating back to his college days.
Tagovailoa has also had a slow start over his first two years in the NFL, but in Years 3 through 5 with the Dolphins, he blossomed into a full-time starter that averaged around 269 yards per game while completing around 69 percent of his passes for 73 touchdowns to 29 interceptions. Tagovailoa has his own injury history, though, and while he led the league in passing yards when he got to play all 17 games, concussions forced him to miss 10 games combined in the other two years of his good span. Last year, Tagovailoa looked like a shadow of himself, only averaging around 190 yards per game with 20 touchdowns to 15 interceptions.
So far, in Atlanta, the quarterback battle has been a bit one-sided...
