The Atlanta Falcons' entire quarterback battle is ultimately going to come down to where Michael Penix Jr. stands in his recovery from a partially-torn ACL. He's already throwing (and has been since mid-March), but he hasn't progressed beyond partaking in drills and 7-on-7s during Falcons' OTAs.
Right now, it appears that Tua Tagovailoa is the favorite to be Atlanta's Week 1 starter because he's healthier than Penix. It's ironic because both guys come with lengthy injury histories, but it seems that the third-year signal-caller isn't as far along in his recovery as we were led to believe a few weeks ago.
While addressing the media prior to Falcons' OTAs on Wednesday, Kevin Stefanski was asked about how the 26-year-old is progressing, and he made sure we don't get ahead of ourselves. So while he did mention that Penix is doing "outstanding", he hasn't been cleared to take part in 11-on-11s yet.
Michael Penix Jr. still isn't 100% in his recovery from his knee injury
Last time Stefanski spoke to the media, he mentioned that Penix's participation in team sessions "was coming". He has never put a true timetable on the 2024 first-round pick, but the Dirty Birds have continued to enforce the belief that he's exactly where he needs to be in his return from his ACL tear.
This isn't ideal, but let's not over-react to this. Training camp doesn't kick off until mid-July and nobody was expecting him to be as ahead of schedule as he is right now. Throwing during training camp is one thing, but throwing four months-post ACL surgery offers room for optimism with Penix.
The southpaw's priortity hasn't been on battling with Tagovailoa for the starting gig, the Falcons have encouraged him to divert as much focus as possible on getting healthy and taking things day by day. And he's started to look a lot better. You could argue he's looked sharper than Tua during OTAs.
Even still, the Falcons are planning to split QB1 reps between the two. It's an open of a competition as it gets. It's not like Stefanski's old team who basically already have their Week 1 starter pre-planned and the "QB battle" is a formality. They want to give both Penix and Tua a shot to prove themselves, but the former's health puts him at a disadvantage.
The Washington product has been vocal in his admission that his goal is to be ready for Week 1, and that's still three months away. But you'd still hope that he can keep progressing so he's able get to 11-on-11s in the near future--that way he's able to be a full go for the true start of the QB battle in July and can hopefully start in Week 1.
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