The Cooper Rush era finally comes to an end tonight when Michael Penix Jr. gets the ball for the Atlanta Falcons. While it may have felt like 20 years, Rush only started two games for the Atlanta Falcons - and was historically bad.
We say the Rush era is over because even if Michael Penix Jr., Tua Tagovailoa and Jack Strand are all struck by lightning the Falcons would probably prefer to start emergency QB Olamide Zaccheaus instead of Rush, and it would be the correct decision.
Rush's numbers may be from a small sample size but they are uniquely awful. His league-worst 5.2 QBR can't even match that of Jimmy Clausen back in 2010 - and Clausen has become the standard by which all terrible modern quarterbacks are judged.
As is appropriate, Rush has
been ranked the worst starter in the league going into Week 3 by Nick Shook at NFL.com.
"Cooper Rush has been the worst quarterback in the NFL through two weeks, but thankfully, Michael Penix Jr. is returning to the lineup this week. We’ll see if his style of play fits better than that of Rush, who wasn’t helped much by an underperforming offensive line."
The Falcons' offensive line is definitely a concern going forward. This was supposed to be a top-10 unit this year, and that was before they hired legendary offensive line coach Bill Callahan.
However, pass protection is a two-way street and Rush did himself no favors by the way he managed pressure. Penix, for all his faults is far better in this department and much more mobile when he has to escape the pocket.
Fans should keep their expectations realistic, though. Penix has still not even started an entire season's worth of games at this level - so in many respects he's still a rookie. It will be pretty much mathematically impossible for him to perform any worse than Rush has, though.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Falcons land at the bottom of NFL.com's Week 3 QB rankings
