With Michael Penix Jr. sidelined, the pressure was on for Tua Tagovailoa to deliver a stellar debut with the Atlanta Falcons. If he showed out (even in limited action), he would essentially put the quarterback speculation to bed and fully confirm the inevitable that he would be the Week 1 starter in Pittsburgh.
Unfortunately, that is the furthest thing from the sequence of events that transpired last night. In the Falcons' preseason opener, Not only did they fall 27-7 in front of the home crowd, Tagovailoa fell flat, potentially leaving the door open for Penix to potentially steal the QB1 job once he gets fully cleared.
Of the three quarterbacks who took the field for Atlanta, Tua was far and away the best, but that's an incredibly low bar. He only took the field for two series, and while he completed three of five pass attempts for 22 yards, the veteran QB aborted a snap and nearly lost a fumble on his opening drive.
Tua Tagovailoa's Falcons debut was nowhere near as bad as advertised
If you're merely box score watching, you can make the argument that the 28-year-old to truly click within the offense in his Falcons debut, but his shaky start doesn't come with much context. First off, two drives isn't enough time to get your feet wet, especially against one of the NFL's best defenses after missing half of camp.
The Broncos' defense led the NFL in EPA success rate in 2025, allowed the third-least points per game, were the only team to have more team sacks than the Dirty Birds, and they finished second in the NFL in total defense. Of course Denver was going to present a tough matchup, even in preseason.
If we're talking about the other side of the coin, we have to realize that Tagovailoa was working with a very depleted Falcons offense. Atlanta was without Bijan Robinson and Drake London, Jawaan Taylor was sidelined due to injury, and starting left tackle Jake Matthews left the game due to injury also.
So the offensive line and the group of weapons were both very depleted, yet there were still some positive signs in there. Kyle Pitts was out there, and the former Pro Bowler targeted him four times, which resulted in the star tight end hauling in three receptions for 22 yards as their rapport shined.
The issue is that you'd like to see more from a guy looking to turn his career around in supposedly the best situation of his career, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Tua Tagovailoa's debut with the Falcons wasn't great, but there's no reason for fans to reach DEFCON-1 when there's a long season ahead.
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