Reporter shares alarming update on Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr.
from Zac Wassink, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
A story posted on July 6 revealed that free-agency signing Tua Tagovailoa “has a clear advantage” in the competition to win the Atlanta Falcons’ starting quarterback job over 2024 first-round draft pick Michael Penix Jr.
That wasn’t all that shocking of a revelation, as Penix spent the spring recovering from surgery he needed to repair a partially torn ACL and wasn’t cleared to participate in 11-on-11 team sessions through the end of Atlanta’s mandatory minicamp in June. On Monday, Marc Raimondi of ESPN suggested that it’s not a guarantee that Penix will be good to go for the start of training camp.
Per the NFL’s website, veteran Falcons players are due to report for training camp on July 28.
When will Michael Penix Jr. be deemed fully healthy?
“No one knows for sure,” Raimondi said about when the Falcons will deem Penix “fully healthy.”
“Penix has been steadfast that he’ll be fully cleared for everything in practice by training camp and 100% healthy to start in Week 1,” Raimondi continued. “But even Penix himself cannot dictate how well and how quickly his left knee recuperates from the ACL surgery he underwent in November. The typical recovery from such an injury is between nine and 12 months. The beginning of that period for Penix would be midway through training camp.”
The Falcons open the preseason with a matchup versus the Denver Broncos on Aug. 14. While the situation could change, one would think that Tagovailoa will serve as Atlanta’s QB1 on that Friday. Such a scenario playing out should theoretically give Tagovailoa a chance to impress Kevin Stefanski, the Falcons’ first-year head coach who wasn’t with the team when it drafted Penix in the spring of 2024.
Michael Penix Jr. gave Falcons “encouraging signs” this past spring
“Penix impressed a lot of people this spring by just how far along he was — and how comfortable he looked on the field in individual drills and 7-on-7 sessions,” Raimondi added. “He has done this twice before with the other knee, after all, so this is not a foreign process to him. But it’s still impossible to know when he’ll be fully cleared for everything, including 11-on-11 team sessions. And until that happens, Tua Tagovailoa has to be considered the starter.”
Penix suffered two ACL tears before he became a pro. While he deserves credit for bouncing back from those setbacks, that history may not mean much regarding Week 1 of the upcoming season.
Until Penix is “fully cleared for everything,” he seemingly will have no chance of leapfrogging a healthy Tagovailoa on the Atlanta depth chart.