The Atlanta Falcons have already announced that Michael Penix Jr. is going to be their starting quarterback for Week 3 Thursday Night Football at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers.
That naturally raised the question of what’s going on with the also-injured Tua Tagovailoa, and what his role might be if and when he comes back.
Those questions will still have some uncertainty, but Tagovailoa has achieved the first step. He’s working his way back.
Tua Tagovailoa Injury Update
Tagovailoa was back on the practice field on Tuesday. Multiple Falcons beat reporters shared the news, and this video was sent out by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Daniel Flick showing Tagovailoa working through a drill:
Tua Tagovailoa is at practice today for the Falcons. pic.twitter.com/xcVlSSfNWY
— Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) September 22, 2026
The lefty was slated to be the Falcons’ starter in Week 1 as Penix still recovered from his knee surgery, but then Tagovailoa hurt his oblique on the Thursday before the Sunday opener.
That ruled Tua out for that game, and he didn’t practice at all in the lead-up to Week 2, so he couldn’t play then, either.
That left Cooper Rush to start both games, and in the recent loss to the Carolina Panthers, the Falcons let undrafted rookie Jack Strand finish it.
Now, it’s looking like not only will they get Penix back, but Tagovailoa might be able to play, too. It’s certainly a key potential development.
The Falcons are 0-2 to start the era of new head coach Kevin Stefanski, but they planned all along to have both left-handers available to them, potentially for a competition, and certainly to run Stefanski’s offense to the best of their ability.
Rush didn’t even sign until July 29, and so the fact that he had to start the first two weeks was never the plan.
The Falcons may not have started well, but getting their QBs back will only help.
Depth Chart Question
Of course, the question becomes whether Tagovailoa will back up Penix on Thursday night.
It seems that eventually, that’ll be the arrangement, but Atlanta will have to decide if Tagovailoa seems healthy enough to be the backup right now, or if they’ll give that nod to Rush for one week.
The Falcons then don’t play until Monday Night Football in Week 4, so they’ll have a large gap between games that should allow for any remaining recovery needed by Tua.
He may have missed his chance to start, so the best Tagovailoa can do now is prove a worthy backup — in that role, you’re only one play away from being on the field.
Tua Tagovailoa Injury Update is Good News for Falcons