Any doubt about whether there’s a quarterback competition with the Atlanta Falcons between Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa was settled by the one who signed the latter earlier this week.
“For Tua, coming in here, he knows he’s coming in to compete, just like Michael knows that he’s coming in to compete,” Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham said at a press conference on Friday about the team signing Tagovailoa, according to NFL.com. “Everybody, quite frankly, not just those two at the quarterback position, but everybody is coming in to compete. There are no starters right now.
“We’re excited to have Tua, but we’re excited to have all the players that we were able to get in this free-agent class.”
Atlanta promptly signed Tagovailoa to a league minimum contract after the Miami Dolphins officially released him on Monday; Tagovailoa’s release created an NFL-record $99 million dead cap hit for the Dolphins (he was entering the second season of a four-year, $212.4 million deal).
Tagovailoa, a 2023 Pro Bowler, is coming off a down year, as he totaled 2,660 passing yards, 20 passing touchdowns, a career-high 15 interceptions and an 88.5 passer rating across 14 starts in 2025 (he was benched after Week 15), while completing 67.7% of his passes. The year prior (2024), Tagovailoa led the NFL in completion percentage (72.9%). He also led the sport with 4,624 passing yards in 2023 and a 105.5 passer rating in 2022.
Where does Tagovailoa’s arrival leave Penix?
“We talked to him. [Head coach] Kevin [Stefanski] talked to him. I talked to his agent when we knew that this was the direction that we were going,” Cunningham said about Atlanta’s communication with Penix. “You don’t want to blindside somebody, and that’s just how we operate. We want to have open conversations and communication, and I feel like we did that in regards to Michael and Tua.”
Penix, whom Atlanta selected with the No. 8 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, started the last three games of his 2024 rookie campaign and opened the 2025 season as the Falcons’ starting quarterback. With that said, his 2025 campaign ended after nine starts due to a torn ACL. Across the nine games he started last season, Penix totaled 1,982 passing yards, nine passing touchdowns, three interceptions and an 88.5 passer rating, while completing 60.1% of his passes.
Why does “communication” loom large for the Falcons? Two years ago, they drafted Penix after signing Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal, with the veteran quarterback’s camp feeling misled by Atlanta’s draft selection. Cousins was benched for Penix in Week 16 of the 2024 season, got back under center on a full-time basis after Penix went down last season and was officially released earlier this week.
Of course, Atlanta has a new regime than the one that executed the aforementioned 2024 offseason, as the Falcons hired former franchise quarterback Matt Ryan as their President of Football, Cunningham — who was previously the assistant general manager of the Chicago Bears — as their general manager and Stefanski, the former coach of the Cleveland Browns, as their new coach.
Last month, Ryan expressed that he was “excited” about what the future holds for Penix.