Michael Penix Jr. makes honest admission about QB competition vs. Tua Tagovailoa

The Atlanta Falcons' competition for their starting quarterback job between free-agency signing Tua Tagovailoa and 2024 first-round draft pick Michael Penix Jr. is a battle in name only, as Penix still hasn't been fully medically cleared after he needed surgery last fall to repair a partially torn ACL.

On Wednesday, Penix spoke honestly about where he would be on the depth chart if the 2026 NFL season started this coming weekend.

Michael Penix Jr. knows he can't focus on possibly winning the Falcons' starting job

"I can’t worry about a starting job until I’m worried about getting back on the field," Penix admitted, per Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. "If I can’t be on the field, how am I going to be the starter? That’s all my focus is right now — just trying to get back and get healthy so that whenever that time comes, then we can talk about the whole starter thing, but that’s not my focus right now."

Tagovailoa spent springtime workouts serving as the Falcons' temporary QB1 as he and his teammates learned the offense being installed by first-year Atlanta head coach Kevin Stefanski. While Tagovailoa had been dealing with a tight back, he indicated this week that issue won't keep him from playing in the Falcons' preseason opener versus the Denver Broncos on Aug. 14. 

"I’m just getting stronger and getting more confident in my knee and everything," Penix continued. "My body has been feeling really good. I’m hitting all my weight goals and making sure I’m taking my diet seriously. I’m doing everything I can to help my knee get better faster. I’m definitely better than where I was last week."

When could Michael Penix Jr. be fully cleared?

It was previously suggested that Penix may not be fully cleared until later in August. However, he insisted on Wednesday that he could be cleared "any day." 

That said, it doesn't sound like "any day" will come before the second weekend of August wraps up.

"I’m not really chasing a timeline," Penix added. "I’m just chasing trying to be better every day. Each and every day I get out there, I look forward to being better than I was the day before. That comes with obviously just the reps, time on task, and also just what I’m doing in the rehab and the treatment room as well, so I can get to where I want to be."

Also on Wednesday, Falcons reporter Marc Raimondi of ESPN noted that "it's fair to say Tagovailoa will be the team's Week 1 starter unless something major changes" between now and the club's regular-season opener at the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 13. Penix doesn't appear close to forcing any kind of "major" change regarding Atlanta's QB competition this summer.