Tua Tagovailoa Gets the Start and Michael Penix Jr. Gets Bubble Wrap in Falcons Preseason Finale
Stefanski: Tua will start. Cooper Rush will be backup. Penix will be inactive.
The Atlanta ' quarterback room is currently operating as a chaotic mix of redemption arcs and medical charts. Head coach Kevin Stefanski just handed us the script for their preseason finale, and it is exactly the kind of drama we deserve.
According to ESPN's Marc Raimondi, is officially starting Friday night against his former team, the . Cooper Rush will take over as the primary backup, while . gets to spend the evening in bubble wrap on the inactive list.
Keeping Penix in street clothes is the only logical move here. He just got cleared for full team drills after tearing his ACL last November. You do not trot a guy with a freshly repaired knee out in a meaningless August exhibition just to see if he can dodge third-string linebackers.
That leaves Tua to take the opening snaps in , which is objectively hilarious theater. Eight months after the Dolphins benched him, he gets to walk back into their stadium and audition for Atlanta's Week 1 job.
Once Tua gets his expected handful of snaps, we get the Cooper Rush experience. Rush has 3,766 career passing yards and 20 touchdowns on his resume, making him the ultimate break-glass-in-case-of-emergency veteran to eat up preseason clock before Jack Strand closes out the game.
For anyone degenerate enough to be looking at the lines for a preseason finale, knowing Tua is actually taking the field gives you a clear read on the early game script. Atlanta is treating the first quarter like a dress rehearsal before handing the keys to the backups.
The real question is what happens when the games actually matter. Stefanski still has not officially named his Week 1 starter for their opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers. But with Penix being protected like a prized asset and Tua getting the ceremonial start, the are finally starting to show their hand.