As far as quarterbacks competitions go, the Atlanta Falcons' QB battle between Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa is truly an enigma. Typically, competitions last all offseason, but because of Penix's health, Atlanta's in a situation where they can't evaluate them the same until training camp.
Penix suffered a partially-torn ACL in Week 11 of the 2025 season, and underwent surgery in November, and has spent the majority of the offseason going through the rehab process. He's ramped up a lot, and has even done more than the Falcons expected, but still isn't all the way there.
The 26-year-old's final hurdle is to be cleared for full contact, which should happen at some point before or during training camp, and it's from there that Atlanta will be able to begin their QB evaluations since Penix and Tua will be on the same playing field, and this will be a wide open battle.
Michael Penix Jr. still has to chase Tua Tagovailoa to be the Falcons' QB1
But even once he's healthy, the third-year quarterback still has a lot to prove. While going over takeaways from all 32 NFL teams during offseason workouts, The Athletic's Josh Kendall revealed that Penix has to play catch-up with Tagovailoa, namely in the accuracy column where Tua thrives.
"The quarterback competition hasn’t really started yet," Kendall. wrote... "Penix, who expects to be full go when camp begins the last week of July, threw in 7-on-7 drills during the offseason and still needs to close the accuracy gap with Tagovailoa to give himself a chance."
Kendall also confirmed the expectation about the 2024 first-round pick being cleared for training camp, but that's not the smoking gun here. He mentioned that MPJ has to "clear the accuracy gap" with Tagovailoa in order to give himself a chance to win the Dirty Birds' quarterback competition.
While the Washington product was going through rehab, Tua took advantage of his absence. The 28-year-old was one of the standouts of Falcons' mandatory minicamp, displaying the accuracy that made him one of the NFL's better signal-callers before a down season in 2025 halted his momentum.
We heard Kevin Stefanski at the podium earlier this offseason. Timing and accuracy are two of the pillars of what this Atlanta offense is built on, and his words felt like a ringing endorsement of Tagovailoa, who led the NFL with a 74.2% completion rate in 2024 and is a 68% passer in his career.
Meanwhile, Michael Penix Jr., despite his rare arm talent and untapped potential, has a career completion percentage below 60%. A 12 start sample size is small, but this is not ideal regardless. He's at a crossroads in his time with the Falcons, and we have more questions than answers now.
One thing is true: Penix will not stay afloat in the competition with Tua Tagovailoa if he can't prove to Stefanski he has what it takes to keep growing into a more accurate passer. And while as much as this offense should play into his strengths, it won't matter if he can't play into the strengths of this system.
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