Are Falcons handing starting QB job to Tua Tagovailoa over Michael Penix Jr.?

Almost immediately after former Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was linked with the Atlanta Falcons, some understandably assumed it was a matter of when and not if he would be named the starter for a club that doesn't know when 2025 Week 1 QB1 Michael Penix Jr. will return from his latest injury. 

While speaking with reporters on Friday, Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham suggested that neither he nor head coach Kevin Stefanski is ready to hand the starting job to anybody quite yet. 

Falcons are excited about Tua Tagovailoa, but...

"For Tua, coming in here, he knows he's coming in to compete, just like Michael knows that he's coming in to compete," Cunningham explained, per Nick Shook of the NFL's website. "Everybody, quite frankly, not just those two at the quarterback position, but everybody is coming in to compete. There's 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 this free-agent class."

Tagovailoa reportedly agreed to a team-friendly one-year contract with the Falcons, meaning the club isn't financially married to the idea of starting the 28-year-old. Additionally, some think he will prove to be a bad fit for the system run by Stefanski and new Falcons offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.

Nevertheless, it's still unknown when Penix will be cleared to fully resume football-related activities after he needed surgery this past fall to repair a partially torn ACL. Back in February, he took to Instagram and shared that he "never needed motivation or a pat on the back." 

On Friday, Cunningham confirmed that the Falcons "talked to" Penix before the club worked a deal out with Tagovailoa.

Falcons didn't want to "blindside" Michael Penix Jr. with Tua Tagovailoa move

"Kevin talked to him," Cunningham added about Penix. "I talked to his agent when we knew that this was the direction that we're going. 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." 

Until Penix is physically able to compete on the field with Tagovailoa, the latter likely will serve as Atlanta's temporary QB1 during offseason workouts.