The Falcons quarterback competition just got real

A month ago, it felt like Tagovailoa was a shoo-in to begin the season as Atlanta’s starter. He had every opportunity to take the job and never look back. Instead, he may have just handed it to Penix while Penix was sitting on the sideline.

This was always going to be a situation where the Falcons leaned toward the younger quarterback if the competition was close. This isn’t a team that’s a serious Super Bowl contender. Their No. 1 priority is — and has been for the last decade — finding a franchise quarterback who can finally pull this organization out of the purgatory it’s been in since trading Matt Ryan.

Penix may or may not be that guy. He showed promising flashes last season before going down with the ACL injury, but the overall sample size remains far too small to say anything concrete. The Falcons want to see what they have in him, and the thought was that a veteran like Tagovailoa would provide legitimate competition. It hasn’t quite worked out that way to this point, but it’ll be interesting to see how the temperature changes now that both guys are a full go.