Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. partially tore his left ACL last November, ending his season in Week 11. Roughly seven months later, the Falcons kicked off mandatory minicamp on Tuesday. Penix will not be a full participant, however, as head coach Kevin Stefanski announced he has not been cleared for 11-on-11 work (via Josh Kendall of The Athletic).
“He’s exactly where he needs to be,” Stefanski said. “We will just continue to lean on medical and Mike.”
The Falcons are indeed pleased with Penix’s “rigorous rehab,” according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, who suggests the third-year passer is ahead of schedule. Returning to full strength by training camp in late July will be pivotal for Penix, who will have to beat out free agent signing Tua Tagovailoa for the Falcons’ starting job. Tagovailoa’s stock is down after a disastrous 2025 in Miami, which released him in the offseason at the cost of a record $99.2MM in dead money.
With the Dolphins still on the hook for a large portion of the ill-fated four-year, $212.4MM extension they awarded Tagovailoa in July 2024, the Falcons got him on a much cheaper deal. The one-time Pro Bowler will count just $1.215MM against Atlanta’s cap this season. It was a low-risk move by the Falcons, who will hope the oft-injured Tagovailoa stays healthy and revives his career under Stefanski, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, QBs coach Alex Van Pelt and passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand.
As is the case with Tagovailoa, injuries have cut down Penix on a regular basis. During his four-year run at Indiana, Penix tore his right ACL twice (in 2018 and ’20), broke his collarbone (’19) and separated his shoulder (’21). Penix then transferred to Washington, where he had a healthy and prolific pair of seasons. The Falcons and now-former general manager Terry Fontenot were impressed enough to draft Penix eighth overall in 2024 despite the presence of Kirk Cousins, whom they lured from Minnesota on a four-year, $160MM pact just weeks before the draft.
Penix sat for most of his rookie campaign, but that changed when then-head coach Raheem Morris benched Cousins going into Week 16. While the Falcons were 7-7 and still in playoff contention at the time, they went 1-2 with a pair of overtime losses under Penix and missed out. Nevertheless, Penix showed enough in the Falcons’ eyes to continue as the starter ahead of Cousins last season.
A healthy Penix started nine of the Falcons’ first 10 games (he missed Week 7 with a bone bruise in his knee), though the 26-year-old seldom looked the part of a franchise QB. The team fell to 3-7 with a loss to the Panthers on Nov. 16, the day Penix tore his ACL. Cousins was at the helm for a 5-2 finish, including four straight wins to end the season, but the Falcons were officially out of playoff contention by Week 14.
Not long after the team extended its postseason drought to eight years, owner Arthur Blank canned Fontenot and Morris in early January. Blank replaced them with president of football Matt Ryan, GM Ian Cunningham and Stefanski. Those three signed off on releasing Cousins, a move that came with a $35MM dead cap charge, and bringing in Tagovailoa. They have no built-in loyalty to Penix, making it all the more important for him to get back in time for camp. It appears that will happen.
“That’s the expectation,” Penix said (via Marc Raimondi of ESPN). “I know I go see my doctor before all that kicks off. So, it’s really up to my doc.”
Assuming Penix is medically cleared in the next month-plus, he will take part in one of the summer’s most interesting position battles. Regardless of who wins the competition between Penix and Tagovailoa, the Falcons are guaranteed to have the only left-handed starting signal-caller in the league.
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