If you got worn out this offseason hearing about the Atlanta Falcons' quarterback situation, odds are you're in for a long year. The dysfunction hanging over the game's most important position has not changed, and with just nine days to go before the regular season kicks off, we still don't know who's going to be starting in Week 1.
The biggest issue right now is that Tua Tagovailoa has not played well enough to earn the QB1 job despite having had no real competition this summer. Michael Penix Jr. just started playing 11-on-11, so he'll need more time to get up to speed. Meanwhile, the Falcons are also carrying two other quarterbacks in undrafted rookie Jack Strand and veteran Cooper Rush.
That's a bizarre dynamic, and according to Dave Helman
at The Athletic, it's the weirdest quarterback room in the NFL, including that of the Cleveland Browns.
"Dave Helman on what he’s watching the first month of the season: The weirdest quarterback room in the NFL. It’s weirder than Cleveland because at the end of the day, very cynically, Cleveland makes sense. A bad quarterback on an impossibly bad contract is playing out the string because people there want that to happen. That makes sense. I don’t know what to do with the Atlanta quarterback situation..."
This take stings like holy water flung on the face of the Falcons' cursed quarterback situation.
The good news is that carrying four quarterbacks gives head coach Kevin Stefanski a lot of options. The bad news is they are all profoundly flawed in their own unique ways. Tagovailoa refuses to throw the ball farther than five yards down the field, Penix has yet to prove he can hold up for a 17-game season, Rush is 32 years old and a career backup in any case and Strand has only played a few preseason drives at this level - none of them with the starters.
The solution is over our pay-grade. Matt Ryan basically has to hope that Penix is ready to run soon and that he's taken a big leap forward since the last time we saw him.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Analyst says Falcons have the 'weirdest' QB room in the NFL
