The Atlanta Falcons made a pair of quarterback roster moves on Monday.
No, neither of them directly involved Tua Tagovailoa, Atlanta’s current backup QB.
The fact that the moves happened at all, though, raised questions about Tua’s future with the Falcons.
Falcons QB Moves
The Falcons chose to sign free agent QB Andy Dalton, the veteran most known for his time with the Cincinnati Bengals.
In a corresponding move, the Falcons released Cooper Rush.
On the depth chart, it’s one quarterback in and one quarterback out.
The Falcons still have Michael Penix Jr., Tagovailoa and the undrafted rookie Jack Strand.
Is Tua’s Job in Danger?
This is the question that everyone is asking, and the reality is that it likely won’t have an answer for a week or two, at the very least.
First, the Falcons will have to get Dalton up to speed on the playbook. Even if he had a chance to overtake Tagovailoa as the QB2, that wouldn’t happen in Week 7 — it’s too soon to feel confident Dalton has the whole offense figured out.
The telling sign will be in potentially Week 7 or 8 — if Tagovailoa is slotted in as the emergency QB3, that would show that Dalton had passed him into the backup role.
It’s not actually clear that it’s a likely outcome, though. The Falcons prioritized signing Tua this offseason to compete with Penix and at the very least be his backup. Dalton was a free agent in the offseason, too, after three years with the Carolina Panthers — if Atlanta had wanted to sign Dalton, they could’ve thrown themselves in the mix there, too.
Of course, maybe they did try to sign Dalton and just lost out to the Eagles. It’s hard to know for sure.
Tua’s Backup Role
Tagovailoa has only played three snaps this season, all in Week 5 against the Ravens. He completed a pass to Bijan Robinson, completed another pass to Drake London, then threw a game-losing interception to Kyle Hamilton.
It certainly wasn’t ideal, but the late-game injury to Penix made it a tricky spot for Tagovailoa to be thrown into.
That performance alone wouldn’t be what would potentially lose Tagovailoa his backup gig. If the Falcons see him every day in practice and worry about having to use him in a game, that would be what would cost him the QB2 spot.
At this point, it’s all just speculation as to whether or not Dalton can eventually slide above Tagovailoa in the depth chart. It’s probably mostly up to Tua himself to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Falcons’ Tua Tagovailoa Faces Uncertain Future After Andy Dalton Signing