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The Atlanta Falcons are just over three months away from kicking off their 2026 NFL season, which will begin in early September. The Falcons have had a busy offseason, headlined by the signing of Tua Tagovailoa, who joins Michael Penix Jr. in the team’s quarterback room.
Penix Jr. missed the home stretch of last season after suffering an ACL injury, but now, the team has gotten a positive update on his status ahead of the upcoming mandatory minicamp.
“Kevin Stefanski says QB Michael Penix Jr. is ‘hitting every single milestone’ in his recovery timeline,” reported Will McFadden of the Falcons on X, formerly Twitter.
“Stefanski says we’re closer to Penix being cleared for 11 on 11,” added Marc Raimondi of ESPN. Stefanski said “we’ll see” when asked if that milestone could be cleared as soon as mandatory minicamp next week.
The Falcons also got a positive update on safety Billy Bowman, who suffered a torn Achilles last year.
“Kevin Stefanski says Billy Bowman Jr. is progressing in his return from injury, but he isn’t ready to participate in practice just yet,” reported McFadden.
Injury concerns were a major issue for Penix coming out of college, as he suffered multiple ACL tears during his stint there. While he was able to stay healthy during his rookie season in Atlanta, which didn’t begin until more than halfway into the 2024 campaign, that unfortunately didn’t last for the entirety of last season, paving the way for Kirk Cousins to retake the starting job for the stretch run of 2025.
Cousins has since signed with the Las Vegas Raiders in free agency, opening the door for the Falcons to bring in Tagovailoa after his release from the Miami Dolphins.
It will be interesting to see if Tagovailoa could potentially compete for the starting job if both he and Penix are healthy. Both players have unfortunately storied injury histories.
In any case, mandatory minicamp for the Falcons is slated to get underway next week.
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