The Atlanta Falcons appear to know where this is going.
It’s looking more and more like their Week 1 game in Pittsburgh against the Steelers will feature Cooper Rush starting at quarterback and not Tua Tagovailoa.
That wasn’t the plan until Tagovailoa was injured during Thursday’s practice, but life moves quickly in the NFL.
The next-man up mentality, a cliche but also quite real, will be put to the test for Atlanta this weekend, barring a late twist.
Update: Tagovailoa has officially been ruled out.
Tua Tagovailoa Injury Update
Tagovailoa wasn’t on the field during the portion of Friday’s practice open to the media.
Don’t see Tua Tagovailoa during the media viewing portion of practice. #Falcons
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) September 11, 2026
While that’s not an automatic guarantee that Tagovailoa is out, it’d be incredibly rare and odd for a QB not to be on the field while the media is around if the plan is still for him to play.
The Falcons will make things clearer with their injury report later in the day, when Tagovailoa will both be given an official practice status as well as a game-designation for Sunday.
Tagovailoa was listed as a limited participant in Thursday’s practice due to an oblique injury that caused him to briefly drop to the ground.
The “limited” part of that is a tad misleading, though. He didn’t practice at all after the injury. He was only limited because practice had already started before he got hurt.
Cooper Rush Time
Barring a late twist with Tua, it’ll be Cooper Rush getting the start for the Falcons on Sunday in Pittsburgh.
The former Cowboys and Ravens backup spoke with reporters after Thursday’s practice and revealed that he had gotten all the first-team reps.
Given the fact that Tagovailoa wasn’t on the field at Friday’s practice, it’s likely that Rush worked with the first-string again on Friday.
Even without considering the physical injury, it’d be tough for Tagovailoa to play on Sunday after Rush got all the practice reps for multiple days. At this point, it seems Rush will be the guy.
If Tagovailoa is fully ruled out, with Michael Penix already out, the Falcons will be down to two healthy quarterbacks for Week 1.
Rush’s backup would then become undrafted rookie Jack Strand, who was a Division II star and also looked promising in the preseason but will clearly be in uncharted waters on the active roster for his first NFL regular season game.
The Falcons have a lot of offensive weapons, including Bijan Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts. It appears those guys will have to do a lot of heavy lifting on Sunday to help Atlanta overcome its tough QB situation.
Tua Tagovailoa Injury Update Is Bad News for Falcons