The Atlanta Falcons' decision to sign Tua Tagovailoa has been met with mixed reviews in league circles, but anyone who knows what they're talking about thinks the move makes sense. It isn't often that a franchise is able to land a capable starting QB for the NFL's veteran minimum of $1.3 million.
This is not to say that he'll set the league on fire or look like the MVP candidate he was in 2023, all Tagovailoa needs to do is be better than Michael Penix Jr., and if the past is any indication, that shouldn't be too difficult, especially when he has the most talented supporting cast of his career.
While ranking the ten best moves of the NFL offseason, NFL.com's Jeffri Chaddha had Atlanta's signing of Tua at sixth on the list. So much for people disagreeing with Ian Cunningham and Kevin Stefanski's rationale, as it seems like the only people who don't like this move are Falcons fans online.
"As much as Tagovailoa has his own long injury history in this league, he has been a good player when healthy. All he has to do is provide a little bit of consistency, and the Falcons should be in the mix for the NFC South title. We've seen players like Sam Darnold , Baker Mayfield and Daniel Jones turn around their careers with a change of scenery. Tua could do the same thing in Atlanta at an extremely discounted cost"Jeffri Chaddha
I understand people wanting to err on the side of caution with a 28-year-old QB who has only played in all 17 games in a season once and looked genuinely putrid in 2025, but this is too much. For this little financial investment, I would take him over Kirk Cousins 100 times out of 100 as the veteran QB, especially given his past track record.
The Atlanta Falcons' decision to sign Tua Tagovailoa is finally receiving praise in NFL circles
Chaddha mentioned some of the other successful reclamation projects at QB in recent seasons, and thinks that Tagovailoa can join them. Sam Darnold helped the Seahawks win a Super Bowl, while Baker Mayfield and Daniel Jones shined after finally being set up for success after a scenery change.
For what it's worth, we don't even know if Tua has the QB1 job on lock yet. The Alabama product definitely seems to have the upper hand with Penix recovering from a torn ACL and is not guaranteed to be back in time for training camp. But once camp rolls around, it'll be an all-out quarterback battle.
The Dirty Birds have had some brutal QBs over the years in Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder, and Taylor Heinicke. Tagovailoa is not elite, but he is light years better than all of the guys the Falcons were starting while they were in QB purgatory after trading away Matt Ryan. And like Chaddha noted, he gives them a shot to win now with a talented roster around him.
The weapons are solid, the offensive line is the best one he's ever played behind, and Jeff Ulbrich has this defense on a positive trajectory. In an NFC South where all four teams are relatively evenly matched, the one thing that's hampered Atlanta in recent seasons was QB play, which they now have.
It may not be the most glamorous signing, but he's making backup QB money, yet all of the actual backups in free agency will sign for more than him. Gardner Minshew got almost $9 million from the Arizona Cardinals, yet a better, more viable starting QB in Tua chose to sign for the league minimum.
That's a strong level of humility, and we know the talent has been there in the past, so assuming he wins the job over Penix as expected, I expect him to make Atlanta look like geniuses for investing in him with this little risk involved.