With both Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa recovering from injury, the Atlanta Falcons were in a pretty dire position at quarterback. They were forced to turn to undrafted rookie Jack Strand, who assumed most of the first-team reps in the team period since Cooper Rush was freshly signed.
We know Tua and Penix will be QB1 and QB2, but the QB3 job is wide open-- and it's starting to seem like seems like Strand has the inside track to win the job over Rush. He took most of the 11-on-11 snaps on both Thursday and Friday, and he was particularly sharp during Thursday's practice.
The 22-year-old completed completed six of eight passes in 11-on-11 during on Thursday, where he threw a touchdown to Drake London in the red zone, but also threw an interception, and then he went 7-for-8 on Friday in 11s. There were ups and downs, but that's exactly what you'd expect from a young QB under this huge learning curve.
Jack Strand has showed up when the Atlanta Falcons needed him most
The fact that the Falcons are investing this much trust in him in the first place bodes well for his chances of making the roster--even as the third-string quarterback. He went from facing D2 defenses to facing a first-team NFL defense--and while he didn't set the world on fire, he was solid.
Perhaps this coaching staff is investing more trust in Strand because he's had more time to learn the playbook than Rush--who has been in Atlanta for less than a week-- but the fact of the matter is that his ceiling is higher and Kevin Stefanski should see this young passer as a moldable piece of clay.
Stefanski has sung his praises at the podium, and many other players also had nothing but good things to say about how he handled the pressure of starting off training camp as the starter. And being able to command an offense with that much composure as a rookie quarterback has to matter.
Good thing that third-string job is still very much up for grabs. Competing with Trevor Siemian to be the QB3 would have been tougher due to his longer track record as a solid backup, but Cooper Rush is plenty beatable--and he's proving that experience isn't the only thing that matters in a QB battle.
The Atlanta Falcons basically threw Jack Strand right into the fire, and since the undrafted rookie has shown some nice resilience. As long as he sustains this momentum, it sounds like he's giving himself more merit to stick around (on the Week 1 roster and not the practice squad) with each passing day.
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