The entire complexion of the Atlanta Falcons' season will boil down to how Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa fare. The Falcons signed Tua to push the injured Penix for the starting jon and are banking on one of them to bounce back in 2026, though the QB battle won't begin until training camp does.
Across the last couple of weeks, the 28-year-old has started to get some buzz as Atlanta's Week 1 starter after a strong showing during OTAs and mandatory minicamp. So while Tagovailoa may be the early frontrunner to win the job, Penix is getting healthier and a true quarterback competition looms.
While he's not close to being out of the woods yet, Atlanta signed Tua to a one-year deal worth the league minimum in free agency, and are already seeing the return on investment. They've been praised for the deal all offseason, and got another endorsement from one of his old teammates.
Patrick Paul is expecting Tua Tagovailoa to be the Falcons' Week 1 starter
We've already seen De'Von Achane weigh in on Tua's scenery change and now another one of his former Miami Dolphins teammates is heaping praise upon him. While on an episode of The Set with Terron Armstead, Dolphins' starting left tackle Patrick Paul sent a major message about his old QB1.
"I love him, for life. That's my dawg," Paul said. "The season didn't go how he wanted... I know he's going to go [to Atlanta] and he's going to win that spot, he's a great player. I know he's going to bounce back."
The 2024 second-round pick only played two seasons with Tua, but still made it clear he knows Tua will win the starting job in Atlanta. Paul's comments expose one trend that Falcons fans have to take notice of when it comes to Tua Tagovailoa: his teammates love him so much they're skipping ahead a few chapters to go to bat for him.
Taking the emotion out of it, Paul's logic is pretty sound. 2025 was a disaster for the former Pro Bowler, as Geno Smith recorded more than Tua's career-high 15 interceptions, and he was benched for Quinn Ewers by the end of the season He looked so awful he probably got Mike McDaniel fired.
This was a quarterback the Dolphins signed to a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension a little less than two years ago, and felt comfortable eating over $99 million in dead money to get rid of him. But a new and improved situation playing with better weapons in Atlanta will help him return to form.
The Dirty Birds will have Tua playing behind the best offensive line of his career and throwing to players such as BIjan Robinson, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Zachariah Branch. And his status as one of the NFL's most accurate passers should be a perfect fit in Kevin Stefanski's system, which is built on timing and accuracy. Just because he was awful in 2025 doesn't mean 2026 will be the same.
It wasn't that long ago that Tua Tagovailoa looked like one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Regardless of how the wheels fell off last year he led the league in passing yards in 2023 and completion percentage in 2024, so like Patrick Paul said, he's a great player who will bounce back.
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